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 :)