Countdown is progressing

Only a few weeks to go until the grading and things are slowly coming together. My thesis is put to bed and ready for printing, just need to type out my pattern breakdown and set out a précis of the blog posts and forum entries. This grading cycle has proved really tricky with so many things competing for my attention that sometimes I've just ended up like a rabbit in the headlights, frozen, not knowing where to go and what to do. You would have thought the second time around that things would be easier, but to me this has been much harder than my first BB grading cycle. I thought work was demanding then but in the last 18 months it has dominated my week, leaving little time for family and training, coupled with the need to keep a fitness regime going (don't forget one of my goals is to complete a half marathon)it sometimes just got too much and I needed to just sit down and relax. Last night my wife asked me if I was ready for the grading and my response was a qualified 'Yes' I think my thesis is really good, my pattern breakdown could be better, my personal demo is not great due to numerous set backs with training partners and my personal bug bear, theory, is a constant battle. When you write it down like that I'm not sure I am ready! For me it's about giving it the best attempt you can, I have slowly accepted the fact that I cannot devote the time to training that I used to do as personal time is squeezed by work and family commitments have to take precedence. The school has a good mix of students but most fall into the category of young enough to not have the same personal responsibilities and commitments or old enough that they have moved past that into a time of maximising their free time to pursue what they want to do. If I was to put my pre BB head on from 3 years ago I would be stinging in my criticism of myself and would definately say I was not ready, had not prepared enough and not deserving of a 2nd Dan. Today I have to look at the last 6 months and reflect upon it with a different eye. I can't be as uncompromising now as I was then, I was in a different space, time has moved on, and me with it. With an older and hopefully wiser head I am accepting of the fact I have done, what I feel, as much as I was able to do, in the time given. This is different to saying 'I did all I could do' as there is always more I could have done. I could have gone to training more when I came home late, but then I wouldn't have seen the kids or had time to relax with my wife. I could have devoted more of my weekends to study and practice, but again do I not take the family out or simply veg out in front of the TV watching a film cuddled up to my daughters? On the day of the grading I don't think I am going to be crossing the threshold with the levels of confidence I had at 1st Dan, I am simply going to bow, enter the Dojang and 'show what I know' if that isn't good enough, then so be it, MA training isn't a turn up and get your belt affair. If I don't get promoted then I will just keep on doing what I am doing, accepting of the fact that, with current circumstances as they are, I have reached a plateau in my training. There is still some time to go before the grading and rather than stressing about it I want to look forward to some of the goals yet to attain, my half marathon is in a months time and I have already started to look forward to 2013 with some personal goals in mind. Today was going to be a day where I was going to give some focus on theory, but I have been asked by my youngest daughter to help her with some coursework that she needs to complete before her return to school, so again, life takes me in a different direction.

Lots happening, how to put it forward?

Over a month since the last blog entry, doesn't mean nothing has been happening, on th contrary tonnes of stuff ha been going on with some big changes to my BB goals due to the realities of work and family life.

I have changed my personal goal fom beginning to learn a new language to a goal more closely aligned with my fitness goal so to that end have been looking to Introduce a low carb diet. I have been posting regulary on the Academy forum so will replicate some of these posts rather than try and duplicate all the info;


Re: Fats don't make us fat.. (The Low Carb Thread)
by Stewart Davison » Tue Jul 24, 2012 9:34 pm

Rich, started going high protein and low carb, interested to understand where I can include berries and nuts/seeds. I have been aiming for 20 grams of carbs a day but this is Atkins level and I am not sure about that as I didn't really enjoy Atkins which I tried about 10 yrs ago to see what all the fuss was about (really didn't like it)

Looking to have a good mix of the nuts/seeds, fruit and veg so keen to understand how you have incorporated them, I am using MynetDiary to keep an eye on the carbs more than anything, keen to know the sort of carb levels you are taking.

One thing I really noticed is that on my return home tonight I wasn't getting the serious carb cravings that I normally do, it was noticeable by its absence as its usually this time where a carb heavy takeaway would come in.
It's all in the reflexes...

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Re: Fats don't make us fat.. (The Low Carb Thread)
by Richard Olpin » Tue Jul 24, 2012 10:30 pm

Stewart Davison wrote:
Rich started going high protein and low carb, interested to understand where I can include berries and nuts/seeds. I have been aiming for 20 grams of carbs a day but this is Atkins level and I am not sure about that as I didn't really enjoy Atkins which I tried about 10 yrs ago to see what all the fuss was about (really didn't like it)


I'm aiming at 'normal' days being <100g, only going super-low <20g for a few days every 2/3 weeks to shock the system a bit.

Stewart Davison wrote:
Looking to have a good mix of the nuts/seeds, fruit and veg so keen to understand how you have incorporated them, I am using MynetDiary to keep an eye on the carbs more than anything, keen to know the sort of carb levels you are taking.


Berries and nuts are more in the Paleo realm, but both feature a lot for me. Especially handy pre/post training. Right now I have a big bowl of blackberries with ground flax seed/goji berries and big dollop of extra thick double cream for the fats YUM YUM.

I'll often have a handful of nuts as a snack on the go, especially cashews or almonds.

Stewart Davison wrote:
One thing I really noticed is that on my return home tonight I wasn't getting the serious carb cravings that I normally do, it was noticeable by its absence as its usually this time where a carb heavy takeaway would come in.

Great innit.

Useful snacks if you need a quickie, peperami or something like a Baby Bel cheese. I buy the sainsbury's mini-cheese selections.

For tracking I'm now using myfitnesspal instead of MyNetDiary. I'm finding the doos database to be MUCH better, and the app/web integration is better.
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Re: Fats don't make us fat.. (The Low Carb Thread)
by Stewart Davison » Wed Jul 25, 2012 8:18 am

Cheers! I am having to do the weekly shop today so will top up on the seeds etc, going to try and sneak a run in today so will look to get some down me as a post training snack, just enjoyed steak and eggs breakfast mmmm!
It's all in the reflexes...

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Re: Fats don't make us fat.. (The Low Carb Thread)
by Stewart Davison » Wed Jul 25, 2012 1:10 pm

One other thing, are you checking what the calories are or just keeping an eye on the carbs?
It's all in the reflexes...

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Re: Fats don't make us fat.. (The Low Carb Thread)
by Richard Olpin » Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:42 pm

Stewart Davison wrote:
One other thing, are you checking what the calories are or just keeping an eye on the carbs?


Not worrying about the calories at all, just looking to have < 100g carbs per day.
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Re: Fats don't make us fat.. (The Low Carb Thread)
by Stewart Davison » Sat Jul 28, 2012 9:02 am

Mmm, just weighed myself after about a week, I've actually put 4 pounds on! I've gone back and checked each day I have only had between 20g and 100g of carbs max, a couple of days my caloric count is actually in deficit due to workouts/ runs. Something's not right, think I might be constipated, even though I'm using flax seed, pints and pints of water etc. Strange thing is I don look 'fatter' if anything I look slightly more toned (always a by product of high protein diets)

Any advice?
It's all in the reflexes...

_______________________________________
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Re: Fats don't make us fat.. (The Low Carb Thread)
by Richard Olpin » Sat Jul 28, 2012 11:52 am

Stewart Davison wrote:
Mmm, just weighed myself after about a week, I've actually put 4 pounds on! I've gone back and checked each day I have only had between 20g and 100g of carbs max, a couple of days my caloric count is actually in deficit due to workouts/ runs. Something's not right, think I might be constipated, even though I'm using flax seed, pints and pints of water etc. Strange thing is I don look 'fatter' if anything I look slightly more toned (always a by product of high protein diets)

Any advice?


Hmm, slightly surprised about that much gain in one week, how often do you weigh yourself?

Couple of things to consider though:
- The time of day you weigh is important as you'll often fluctuate 2/3lb through the day due to food/fluid intake. Don't forget a pint (of anything) weighs 2lb..
- Calories don't really matter that much when you're on a very low-carb diet, it's pretty hard to overeat protein
- The constipation is quite common when you first go extreme low-carbs, but things soon return to normal
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Re: Fats don't make us fat.. (The Low Carb Thread)
by Stewart Davison » Sat Jul 28, 2012 12:26 pm

Without going into too much detail, I weighed myself a little bit later and my weight returned to what I weighed last Saturday. I only weigh myself once a week and usually around the same sort of time. I will keep going and hopefully there will be some loss next week, will keep the carbs between 50 and 100g, taking flax seeds and fibre rich left greens to see if that helps.
It's all in the reflexes...

_______________________________________
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Re: Fats don't make us fat.. (The Low Carb Thread)
by Stewart Davison » Sat Jul 28, 2012 2:58 pm

Uurrgghh, just had a slice of Viccy Sponge in a coffee shop and feels like a cannonball in my stomach, feel bloaty, my reflux is acting up and I'm feeling sleepy. Don't like this, so much for a treat!
It's all in the reflexes...

_______________________________________
Go tell the Spartans, Stranger passing by, that here , obediant to their laws, we lie

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Re: Fats don't make us fat.. (The Low Carb Thread)
by Richard Olpin » Sat Jul 28, 2012 3:32 pm

Stewart Davison wrote:
Uurrgghh, just had a slice of Viccy Sponge in a coffee shop and feels like a cannonball in my stomach, feel bloaty, my reflux is acting up and I'm feeling sleepy. Don't like this, so much for a treat!

It's amazing how quickly your body becomes more attuned to this stuff isn't it.

I noticed two things, firstly when I do eat I realise when I've eaten enough and also, when I do eat cheats/treats I generally feel the side effects (bloating/lethargy/sugar crash) quite quickly.

Top tip: Journal EVERYTHING you're eating and how it makes you feel. It reinforces the negative stuff to help you avoid it.
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As you can see from these posts I am struggling a bit with successfully integrating this type of diet with my phys. I've just come to the end of a 2 week holiday so will to put some focus on this from tomorrow.

When work gets in the way

This week and next week are one of those times when work gets right in the way of any training and makes it tough to fit anything in. Over time I have noticed this happens a lot more than when I first started training, it's just something that at peak times causes a real disruption to my training regime. When this happens I try to keep positive and just fit in small chunks of training whenever I can.

Just getting concerned as before I know it, it will be time for grading, gulp!

Tired, sore, but happy

Been a week or two since i last posted, nothing massive has happened that warranted anything really. One of the things to consider when embarking on a BB testing cycle is that you can get into a rut if you aren't careful and to be honest I would say that happened to me over the last couple of months.

It usually comes down to something setting you back a bit and then a spiral starts that keeps you from fulfilling what you want to achieve. Luckily for me the energy levels at the school and the buzz from the other students has really helped me to break the cycle and start making some positive strides.

My running is making small progress, but hey as I usually hate running small steps (pun intended) is a good thing. I have started incorporating a longer run at the weekends just to start seeing how it feels, longest so far is 8.5 miles, I'm not running the full distance but still achieving a reasonable time. I'm still hoping that by the time of the Bristol Half Marathon (30th Sept) I will have done 13 miles, today was a good example of my approach to this goal. I ended up doing a slightly shorter route (only 7.5 miles) but the route I chose was extremely hilly so I was looking to work on stamina, very hot today so felt like a desiccated coconut!

I've been focussing on the theory and basic aspects of my training as their has suffered the most from neglect, good to see things starting to click back in place, this is really helping to free up time at home to do some more activities around pattern breakdown and planning my personal demo.

Next week is a tricky one as I am away for a few nights with work and this could upset attendance again. I may look to sneak in a day off or two where perhaps I can persuade my instructor and a fellow student to do some extra training with.

The week ahead

With all the positive vibes floating around I'm hoping that this week is going to be a successful one. I know I have to complete some more activity on my pattern breakdown and importantly keep up the practice on all my patterns, especially Gae Baek which is a real tricky one.

It all comes down to just getting on with things rather than constantly 'thinking' odd thing to say perhaps but sometimes its that overprocessing of all the varying strands I need to complete as part of the BB testing cycle that leads to inertia. I suppose it can bets be described as the rabbits in the headlight syndrome, so to counter that I have decided to just focus on small chunks of activity and steadily build and build until I have a really solid programme of practice and activity locked in.

So time to practice what I'm preaching, off to do my reps and then do some patterns practice before its time to shoot off to the office.

Lots of positivity floating about

Blimey, its amazing how things can change pretty quickly. I ve gone from feeling pretty desperate about stuff to absolutely buzzing with positive energy.

Recently there has been a lot of good stuff going on at the school, with new students coming in, more memebers getting involved in the quarterly challenge and all of this has helped kick start of a real positive wave of enthusiasm which is infectious.

This energy has helped me start to focus again on what needs to be done to prepare for BB grading in less than 3 months time (gulp!)I'm getting regular phys done now which always makes me feel happy and last Saturday I even managed my furthest run yet, 8.5 miles!

trying to build in more basics, theory and patterns practice, small, baby steps at the minute to ensure that I dont overstep and crash back again. Lets see what the weekend brings eh?

A fresh start?

I have been a little concerned over the last month or so that I havent been able to commit to my training as much as I wanted (or needed) and that it was having a detrimental effect on how I was viewing my training all over. My weight started creeping up, I was doing less and less, feeling lethargic and generally starting to get a bit down on the whole thing.

I'M not sure what has happened in the last week or so but it seems the fugue has lifted and I am starting to get back to my old self. Last week stuck away from home I still managed to stick to an exercise regime that meant each day I was taking a positive step. After the weekend where I completed the Welsh 3 Peaks Challenge for Charity I have already completed two good 5K runs and I have kept up a set of exercises each morning which help to tone and keep me flexible.

I want to try and keep a steady attendance at the school, even if its only once or twice a week, as my instructor said 'Don't beat yourself up if life gets in the way, look at making small changes to have a positive effect' To that end I am just about to go off and run through a couple of 2nd Dan patterns whilst my cup of tea cools down.

Here's hoping this is a fresh start (only 3 months to go!)