Yosa Sport

Today I tried out a new kind of "yogurt" in the widest sense of the word; it's a 100% plant based, milk free, soy free oat snack. The consistency and taste is just like normal yogurt, but without the lactose and bloating effects dairy has.

Plus, it is made for people leading an active life, so it contains 5g of protein per 100g and only 73 kcal. It is sweetened with stevia, but that doesn't effect the taste. One serving is 200g (so 10g protein and 146 kcal).

For me, this is a great thing, because I am actually not supposed to eat dairy after lunch (because of the bloating and going to bed and stuff), but I love me some yogurt or quark after dinner. So, you can imagine that this makes me very happy. :)

Mixed Martial Arts

So, yesterday our trainer let us try out everything we've learned so far in action. He gave us three times two minutes, during which we were supposed to just try everything to get the other guy to give up.

The other guy? Yes. I seem to be the only girl left standing in our course. Well, maybe the other girl that started with me just has to work, but she's missed about one third of our training sessions up till now and last I talked to her she was having problems cutting her nails short (which is a must due to safety reasons when you're doing martial arts). So yeah, seems like MMA is a rather manly sport (even if she continues it's 2-24). But anyways, where was I?

Yeah, right: training ground techniques and actually using them. It was about the hardest experience I've made so far in martial arts training, but it was also the most fun I've had during training since I can remember. The fact that most guys are stronger than me and I really have to go to my physical boundaries, just makes it more interesting and I do believe that should I decide to really compete at some point, it will come in handy that I am used to guys taller, stronger and much heavier than me.
But how does it feel? Well, you have to somehow figure out how to do your thing and to get a good grip on your "opponent" to get him to give up or disable him. Now, your opponent does his thing and makes it rather hard for you to get through, because let's face it, he too has been training and he knows what you're up to. So, while you're trying to figure out a way of getting the upper hand, your opponent does the same. And most of the time you're in a tight clinch and wrestling hands and arms and legs and you try to get up with all your might, but you can't or can and you're using every single muscle in your body. So, you're pretty done in for the day afterwards. But the feeling is just ridiculously great. I really love this and I love the fact that it's hard and tiring and that I still have a lot to learn. This is so my thing, and it is great to have finally found it. Thai boxing was great, yeah, but it doesn't compare to this rush. This is so much more hands on, down to business. I'm in love. I'm in love with a sport and the great thing is that as long as I stay healthy, nobody can take this away from me.

So, try to find your thing, try to find out, what makes you tick. I realised now, that everything I've done up to this point makes sense right now. My physical fitness is at a level it has never been before. Without this, I'd be like a dead fish trapped under a blue whale during these ground fighting sessions we've had. I also know, that I could be a much better version of myself, if I only learned to eat right and train more efficiently. But I'm getting to it. I started clean eating a few weeks ago when my favourite instructor left, but for entirely different reasons (yeah, wanting to make some visible progress within four months is a nice goal), now I only have to get it to point. At the moment I still have my problems with portion size and peanut butter (don't even ask), but I will get a grip on that, too, because now I have sth to work for. There is this guy at our club, okay, he's a professional, but it would be just great to get to the same level of functional fitness as he. I would really love to make my body functionally strong, so that it works for me. Even if I won't compete ever, I'd love to know, that I could, that my body could do it. So, here's what makes me tick.

Motivation

Starting on Monday I took myself by the neck and dragged me out of bed an hour early every day this week to start my day with exercise. On Monday I went to the gym and pushed through a hard upper body workout (only a half hour and then I had breakfast right away) and in the evening I had MMA ground training. We started practicing chokes this week, which is particularly fun when you still see the choke marks the next day. :D 

Tuesday I did a TIU routine (check out www.toneitup.com) in the morning and met a friend for a Body Pump class in the afternoon. Wednesday I did some yoga and light stretching because my body was kind of sore from the Pump the day before, in the afternoon I had MMA stand-up training. 

Today I went for a 3k run in the morning, which was especially nice in the crisp autumn air outside and I just came home from a Body Combat class with one of my fav instructors. Body Combat 57 has me really excited, as almost every new release (well, the low 50's were a little so-so, but...yeah). 

Tomorrow will start with some GRIT Plyo (<3), then off to work and in the evening it's MMA ground training again. 

Saturday will kind of suck because I have to get up at about 3:45 am (yes, really) to get to work on time. So, no exercise then (sleep is more important, also for weight loss, than exercise because stress hormones can cause your body to put on weight/bloat and crave more food) and probably not in the afternoon, either. 

On Sunday however, it will be high life; CX WORX, GRIT Strength, Body Combat. One of the best two hour combos ever. 

So, yeah, this is this weeks schedule and I still feel, like I could do more. I probably shouldn't, but I really love to work out. 

your body on fat percentage

I found an interesting picture on Pinterest today, showing how your body looks at different fat percentage levels. I myself should be somewhere between 25 and 22% at the moment, but I'm trying hard to get to 20 or even 18. Don't know if this is actually going to work, because it is not about simple dieting but body composition changes, but I can try. :)

One should probably remember that the female body isn't meant to be totally skinny, but that women are supposed to be a little softer than guys. Also, at a certain level (I believe it was around 15%), you won't get your menstruation anymore or at least not on a regular basis, because your body just isn't fit to become pregnant. So, whatever goals you aspire, keep in mind to keep it healthy. :)

breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, that's not only an old saying, but also a hard fact. Breakfast gets your metabolism going and if you skip breakfast, your body won't be able to perform at its best and your metabolism will be sluggish all day, meaning that you need more time to digest and use the food you are eating.

I have been eating egg white omelettes or protein pancakes for a while but they don't really deliver the energy I need, because they are lacking good carbs. So, after trying out a few things my breakfast nowadays (at least on days when I know I'm going to train, and train hard) is either cereal with a little vanilla flavoured whey protein and one egg or porridge.

I love porridge and I spent the last few weeks perfecting my breakfast porridge; I tried adding several things, but some of them didn't work (e.g.: never add frozen berries and milk directly, because the citric acid in the berries will make the milk clump) as whey protein for example doesn't really dissolve in water. However, I found some strawberry soy protein in my cupboard and thought "what the heck, just try it". It was actually good. The soy protein dissolves really well in hot water and the result tastes great. :)

Here's the recipe:

300ml water
150ml 4-grain-porridge
1 tbsp soy protein powder.
1 dash of salt.

heat water in a small kettle, add salt and soy protein, stir until protein powder is dissolved and wait for the water to boil. Then add the 4-grain-porridge (rolled oats are okay, too) and stir until your porridge has the wished consistency. I myself like to add a teaspoon of cherry or strawberry jam for taste.

The best thing is that grains contain loads of fiber, so even if there's a lot of carbs in your porridge, you also get a lot of fiber (which isn't digested) that makes you feel full and lessens the net carb value.

Good morning to you! :)

Half-marathon, or: Who does this for fun?!?

I finished my first half-marathon today. And it will probably be my last. I don't know. Maybe I'll get the crazy idea to try it again sometime when my body stops aching. 

Rewind. On Friday, a friend of mine asked me if I was competing in the half-marathon through our little city, the Tampere Puolimaraton. 21km, no training whatsoever, no mental preparation whatsoever, no idea if I was even able to run 21km (seeing as I've never done this before): of course I said yes and signed up for it after a few more hours of re-arranging my Sunday shift at work. 

Then I started thinking about it and got a little scared. Then a friend told me that it's only 21km, nothing to worry about. Wait, what? The longest distance I've ever gone was about 12km, and that was with a few walking breaks, you see? And yeah, GRIT did a lot to improve my fitness and my VO2max, but I wasn't quite sure what my body would say to a 21km run. So I decided for myself that I could always walk if running started to get impossible, and I assembled an incredible playlist for the whole thing.

Yesterday I got my start number (1304) and all instructions needed and today, with shaking fingers, I pinned the start number to my chest, placed the tracking chip in my shoe and tied my shoes. I met a few friends at the starting point, but I was calm. I was surprisingly calm. Then the whole thing started and I was off to a rather good start. That's what I thought. You never know, because there's just so many people and you never know if the people you're overtaking are actually far behind. But well, I just did my thing (Luke Bryan's "Doing my Thing" was in my playlist) and ran. It felt really good after I had got going, especially kilometers 3-8 were just great. Then my friend, the one that got me into the whole darn thing, showed up beside me. We ran side by side for about one kilometer when he mentioned "Whoa, we haven't even made half the distance.". I told him to just go for it and run and tried to keep him in sight. Which did work out for about 3km, then I lost him from view. Anyway, I was in this for myself, not to prove a point or impress a friend (if you need to impress your friends, you should probably get new friends, that just as an aside), so again I listened to Luke Bryan singing that rain was a good thing and Papa Roach telling me to not keep quiet. Lovex spurred me on, telling me that I should push my mind aside and let my body decide and to get it on. Finnish rapper Cheek sang that there's no shortcut to happiness (oh, how fitting) and the Sick Puppies said that one of us was going down. Concentrating on the music, my body did the dirty work and just kept going. My thighs started to ache like hell on km 15, on km 18 my hips started to tighten up painfully and on km 19 my butt decided to cramp. But it was already km 19. And even though I wanted nothing more than just stop and walk (or actually lie down and die), I knew it was only 2 km to go. I could do this. 2 km and 15 minutes unil two hours were up. 

I kept on running. I asked my body, I pleaded, to make it to the finish line and my body said "okay, let's do this". For real, it sounds strange, but at one point, I almost started to cry because I was so grateful for the things my body was able and willing to do for me, even though it was hurting and feeling like it was being tortured. km 20 went in a blur, but then I saw the bridge that led to the finish line and I gave it the last of my energy reserves and I crossed the finish line at 1h53min brutto, 1h51min netto. Not only has this been my first half-marathon, no, I also made it in less than 2 hours (without even training for it). My friend ran 1:47br and 1:45 net. Which is about 0.5km/h faster than me. 

Anyway, after crossing the finish line, it was hard to even walk straight, oh, let's be honest, it was hard to walk - Full Stop. My thighs were cramping, my butt was cramping, my calves were burning and my feet hurt. Fortunately enough, I have no blisters at all and no chaffing and no nothing. My muscles are aching, but that's it. Oh, and my head was swimming and I was seeing a few stars. I had a banana, a cuppa coffee and loads of water. And I swore, I'd never - ever - do this again. 

But right now, as I am sitting here and thinking the whole thing through... how about trying again next year? Trying to beat 1:45? No. It would be...but why not? :D 

I'm torn. It was a great experience. A painful, but great experience. It was fun. It hurt like hell and it really cost me some self control not to give up. Let's see, what happens. Go with what feels right. 

But one thing I can tell you: I am physically unable to run a marathon. I'm not an endurance athlete, I'm better at short distances. And my body would not have been able to take more. Or maybe it would have been, but this is the moment where my soul tightly hugs my body and tells everybody else to go away and leave the poor thing alone*. Which is why I will get some sleep now. Happy as a clam and tired as hell. Good night.

* (please humor me; today I really felt like my body and mind are two entirely different entities, bound together, but not the same. strange feeling)

Shrimping and half marathons

Today has been a great day in spite of being Friday 13th. 

First of all, I got to spend quality time with a friend I haven't seen since May. It's nice to know that sometimes you don't grow apart even though you haven't seen each other for a long time.

But - the most important part - I had my second real MMA training session. Ground technique. And this is where shrimping comes in :D No, it's not about peeling or catching shellfish, but it's an escape technique in MMA. It looks kind of stupid, but first of all, it's a basic technique you need to learn and second of all: you need to use a hell of a lot of muscle whilst shrimping. To give you an impression, here's a video:

So, my shoulders kind of hurt and I feel a little tired, but I shrimped. 

And then I decided to enlist for the annual Tampere Half Marathon. My aforementioned friend asked me if I wanted to go and I was mulling it over, I needed to change a shift at work, but that worked out just fine. Then I thought about the distance; would I be able to run 20k? But after a while it occurred to me: I didn't need to. If I wanted to, I could walk. So I enlisted, paid the fee and now I'm going to take part in a Half Marathon the day after tomorrow. I could have thought about this a little earlier and maybe train, but training is for sissies. :D No, I suppose my fitness these days can take 20k, and if not, well, walking is always an option. Because it's not important how fast you go, the important thing is that you go. 

I'll probably write about the half marathon, so yeah, see you Sunday :)

MMA - hell, yeah!

So, on Monday my MMA beginner's course started off with the demonstration of the several martial arts the club I'm training at teaches. There were so many people there that wanted to get in shape, wanted to start a new hobby, liked martial arts and it was just great. It was great that there are so many people out there that like this stuff, too. Nice to see that you are not alone with something, that you are not the only one.

I've been doing Muay Thai aka thai boxing for the last two years, but due to several changes at my old club and the training getting a little out of hand (at least that's how I felt), I lost interest in it. Or rather I started to fear training more than I looked forward to. Timo, our main/responsible coach at my new club, came to give an intensive course on different distances in combat one weekend. I learned more in those few hours than I had in the months before during regular training; he was the first one to say that you should never ever hit your partner with full force. I really started to like that guy as a trainer. So, when I heard that his club was moving from the outskirts of the city to the city centre (about 800m from my apartment), I decided to give martial arts another chance. But the fear/tiredness related to Muay Thai had grown too big and I decided to try out another sport in that field: Mixed Martial Arts. I always wanted to try it out, but...I feared my body couldn't take it. But these days I've become quite muscular and strong (and confident in what my body can and can't do), so I thought now was just the right time. This is how I ended up at the demonstration/introduction.

During the application process there were three other women applying for MMA (most females signed up for thai boxing). Today, at our first training session, there was only me. And about 20 guys. Whoohoo. Another male dominated sport I do. But it was fun and the guys were great. Plus, everybody knew me in the end, since I was the only girl. And who's to say I don't have a place in this world of fighting? There's a few women in UFC, Gina Carano or Ronda Rousey.

And not only are they good fighters, but they didn't lose their female charm and sexiness, either. They are cute, but pretty good at beating other people up. I think this could be me, too. Okay, I might be a little old to go pro, but at least I can overcome myself and prove to myself that I got what it takes to survive. I wouldn't be the first to die in the Hunger Games :D

Oh, and the best part? I really feel at home at my new club. The people there are so welcoming and nice and open that it's easy to feel at ease. I stopped worrying about all those things normally going on in my head, like: what if no one likes me? what if no one wants to be my partner? what if I'm all alone in this? The moment I stepped into that gym, it was just...fine. And it doesn't hurt that our club's secretary is rather sexy. :D just kidding. No, not only, he's really good looking, but that's besides the point, he's actually really nice, too. And that's what counts.
So, I guess thanks already for a great first training and a successful introduction to my new club MMA Team 300.

Five years (or: Getting the Finnish Citizenship for Dummies, part I)

...ago we moved to Tampere on August 19th. Back then we were only three German exchange students with the hope of someday maybe living in Tampere. 

Moving here through a student exchange took a lot of responsibility of our shoulders and made a lot of things easier (e.g. getting a residence permit, finding somewhere to live...), plus we got some money from the exchange program. Of course we did study and every single one of us got their degree at some point or another. After about five months living in a student dorm, we moved to our own flat, but we had the time to find a nice one because we could have lived at the dorm for another two to three months. 

That summer we spent some weeks in Germany, finishing our studies and getting our degrees and getting everything else in order. Then we tried to find jobs. We were lucky and found jobs at the same cleaning firm in the same spot. Yeah, cleaning, just like so many other foreigners. But it was a fun working place and I started stumbling up the ladder and so none of us really complained. We had our fun, we made our own money to pay for it, and eventually we all found out what we wanted to do with our lives and went to pursue it. One became a barkeeper/waitress and is pretty happy with this, the other went to Helsinki to become a make-up artist/hairdresser and I myself started to study again (going to become a big time business law advisor or sth in this general direction. or a politician if all else fails :D). 

And somewhere along the road of working, stumbling into strange Finnish nightlife adventures (the best memories I have are of evenings that turned into early mornings sitting on a roof in Tammela eating hamburgers and watching the sunrise with friends, concerts after which I've been talking for hours with nice people walking back home in the morning light, dancing with the nicest group of study buddies one could wish for), making friends some of which were really unexpected, and having really weird experiences with Finnish guys (they are a breed of their own ;) ), we have been living here for five years already. And one day a work mate asked me if I'm applying for the Finnish citizenship. He himself is from Chile and has been living in Finland for a long time, seeing a lot of his friends through the process. 

This got the stone rolling. I looked up everything I could find, and found out that we had actually a shot at it. 

You have to:

- be able to prove your identity reliably: check

- be 18 or older: check (at least that's what my passport says)

- you've been living in Finland for at least 5 years, without breaks: check

- you have no entries in your crime register: check

- you're not hopelessly indebted or haven't been neglecting paying fees etc.: check

- you can show and prove how you earn your living: check

- you have prove that you speak the language well enough: WAIT.

The last condition was a little more problematic than the others. We went to the police and asked if our BA in Finnish Language and Culture was enough, but it wasn't in the list of acceptable documents, so we had to go do the YKI-test. The woman at the police looked at me and apologized a few times because we spoke Finnish well enough, but law is law and she was not able to change it. So: next step, YKI-test.

You could not apply for the YKI-test through the internet. You had to be at the school that organized the test in the morning and hand in your application papers. They recommended you come in time and get a number. So, we were there an hour before application started only to find that there were already about 25 people waiting. An elderly Arab guy wrote down all our names on a list and put the newcomers in in order of arrival. By the time the doors opened, there were about 36 people there. But it still took an hour for them to get the application process going and numbers were nowhere to be seen. By the time application started there were about 45 people. They gave the list to the woman who gave out the application numbers. Yes, now they gave out numbers, and she started screaming our names and gave a number to everybody in order of the names on the list. Wait, did I say everybody? Well, not exactly. The first 40 got a number, because they would not take more than 40 people to take the test. After we had our numbers, they took the first 20 up onto the third floor to go through the application process. We had to wait in the foyer of the school for another hour. Every now and then someone would leave the building, but no one told us what was going on. After an hour of waiting we got to the third floor and there they did nothing else than call out a number, that person went into a room, sat down in front of the woman in charge of the whole thing, gave her the application, she would have a look at it, give you some papers with information about the test and then she'd send you home. That was it. Because of that we had waited three hours! Well, turned out that they did it that way because some of those guys applying filled in their names in the wrong spot because their language competence was rather...iffy. I don't even want to start on that topic (applying for a language competence test if you can't even fill in the test application? Dude...).

After a few weeks we got our test invitations and they were in Finnish. And English. Again, I don't even want to comment on that. We had to pay the fee (100e) and then we went to take the test last Saturday. 

There was a part on reading and understanding, writing, understanding spoken language and speaking. 

The reading comprehension test was just laughable. There were several articles, letters and invitations and you had to answer questions concerning these. Piece of cake. The writing part consisted of three parts: first an email to a friend, second was feedback via email to someone official and third an essay. Again, piece of cake.

Understanding spoken language was just laughable (they spoke clearer and more pronounced Finnish than any of my friends and acquaintances) and the talking part... let's just say, my job has been to talk people into stuff and convince them of things and talking things up, plus teaching newbies and giving seminars in Finnish. I also instructed gym classes. In Finnish. So, yeah, no problem there, either. 

My friend who was with me got the giggles every now and then because she felt that the whole test was kind of ridiculous. It was for us, I have to add. The people who weren't able to fill their names in in the right place in the application form had their problems. And one guy was severely hung over, he was fighting with difficulties of his own. 

And now we wait. They said it takes them about two months to check the tests. So, in late October or early November we can probably take the next step. Filling in new application forms and standing in line and waiting at the local police station for a change. Finns love standing in lines and taking numbers. I've had to get used to it, but they do. 

If you want to apply for the Finnish citizenship yourself, check out the homepage of the Maahanmuuttovirasto here.

Personal Training. or sth like that..

So, a friend of mine asked me for advice on how to get fitter. Mostly because her back was driving her crazy; working as a waitress she has to stand for up to 12 hours a day. 

I suggested she try going to the gym and gaining some muscle. But she didn't really dare to go to a new gym on her own and she said she wanted some help with the machines and stuff, suggestions on what she can do, these kind of things. 

Monday we went to a gym I had been instructing at a few years back and that had left a rather good impression. I looked at the stuff they got there and we tried a few things an based on that I developed a program for her for the first few weeks. We're going to adapt it as we go, but here's the gist:

warm up will be only 10min on either stationary bike or treadmill, because she already is pretty slender and does not need to lose fat. After that we're going to warm up the big muscle groups.

12 jump squats, 5 (assisted) pull ups and 10 push ups to get her muscles working. 

After that we'll be doing 3 different rounds.

The first one will be a fast HIIT-sy one, where she does 6 squats to press, 6 throws onto a ball trampoline, 6 squat burpees (because I came to like the move). She'll be repeating this sequence 3 times. 

The second round is mostly a upper body workout with the help of a TRX-system: back rows, Y-deltoid raises, biceps curls, chest press and triceps press. Then push ups until muscle failure and a short break. After the break a shorter set of the same moves, at the end instead of push ups lunges.

Then we'll go down to round three, the core and especially the lower back; she'll do some back extensions, hanging abs, and dips. Afterwards to get her heart rate up again some boxing.

The last moves will be sit ups and plank pose with her feet on a bosu. I'm not quite sure how she will manage, but I'll pull her through and adapt the training program should she too challenged with this or not challenged enough. 

Most of the stuff we tried out last week and it seems like she can do it, but let's see how it works out. :)

I don't want to start her up with weight training and death lifts and stuff, because I want to see what her back can take and be sure she doesn't get sloppy with the technique, which would be worse when she was doing high weight training the wrong way.

How To Stay Productive When You Work In An Open Office

I found this nice article through CapGemini. I myself have had some problems with keeping up concentration at our office where people are talking to each other across the office or over your head. It's kind of annoying when you're trying to re-calculate the work hours of a mathematically challenged employee and someone starts babbling right beside you.

Here's some tips and tricks.

1. Create a virtual wall
use headphones and listen to ambience/natural sounds to shut out noisy co-workers.
"The best sounds for concentration are natural and unpredictable. Ambient electronic music tends to work well at blocking out noise yet it doesn’t create a distraction. Try binaural beats in stereo headphones. Neurophysiologists believe these sounds can induce the brain into a deep state of concentration, creativity and relaxation."

2. Have a "Collaboration table"
if you want people to collaborate, give them a special area to do so, so they don't have to worry about disturbing others and others don't have to try and concentrate through noisy brainstorming.

3. Adopt a "Do not disturb attitude"
set aside a certain amount of time a day, where you are not to be disturbed and concentrate only on your own work.
"In a study published in Applied Psychology, people seeking help performed better at work, but people providing help actually performed worse. Scientists determined that alternating between helping others and doing your own work imposes a heavy “cognitive load” because you have to reacquaint yourself with the details of your project each time you return to it. Not to mention –multitasking is a fallacy."

Interested in reading the whole thing? switch over here