Building a home gym

As you know, I’m a huge fan of working out at home. That’s mostly because I don’t like sweating around other people. I also enjoy having the ability to work out whenever I want, something that is a bonus when I work from home and have kids.

My husband and I have been building a home gym in the garage using mostly 2nd hand equipment. It’s hot, not all the walls are plastered, and the light doesn’t work, but it’s mine.

It’s not all that fancy or flash, but it contains all the basics that I need to lift heavy stuff.

My garage gym has a squat rack (with pulley), adjustable bench, and a lot of weights (obviously with bars and dumbbells to go with them). I also have some little extras like the swiss ball, some medicine balls, step and a chin up bar. Next on the list of things to get is a suspension system and some kettlebells.

I do have a preference for cast iron weights. Mostly because, well, I just like them more than the others.

The squat rack and bench my husband bought for me 2nd hand off eBay. Best damn present. Ever. He has even re-sprayed the big plates as they were a little rusty. Now they are all shiny. He has no interest in using the gym, so it’s all for me

There’s about 130kg+ of weights sitting there to use. For those playing at home, that’s about 3x my midget-sized body weight. More than enough for now.

My advice when setting up a home gym is to stuck to the basics, there’s no need to go over the top. If you want to workout at home, buy equipment that you will actually use (and fits in your house – get a tape measure). No dust collectors allowed.

I am lucky that I have quite a large space. I can fit what I need in there and have space to do a quick HIIT session. I don’t need a treadmill though. I have kids. And stairs. And a cat that likes to play catch-me-if-you-can every night before bed.

January detox? What January detox??

Let me preface this post by saying that if you ever see me wearing makeup, count yourself very lucky – I’m not too keen on the stuff lol

This photo was taken just before heading out to a friend’s place for dinner, and after my week off of training over Christmas. I spent that week eating, drinking and generally being nice and social. Well, as social as an intense introvert can be – I only hung out with family lol

I still fit in my xxs jeans, my muscles are still there and haven’t atrophied, and the world was still going round.

Life isn’t static. It doesn’t stay the same every day. There are fluctuations, days where you feel awesome and days where you feel like crap. There are days you are so busy you don’t get time to sit down let alone eat and there are days that revolve around food – birthdays, celebrations, picnics, pizza & beer nights. It all evens out in the end.

You don’t need to ‘detox’ or ‘cleanse’. Just eat real food, mostly vegetables, and not too much. The end.

I don’t do New Years resolutions, but I do have some 2015 fitness goals.

Everywhere I go I’m seeing people talking about their goals for this year.

I’ve made a few myself, but they are a bit different this year. This year it is not about losing weight, getting faster, getting stronger (although that will come naturally with what I plan to do), or eating ‘better’.

This year is about learning to be me. Learning to love my body and appreciate everything it’s been through. It’s about living an active lifestyle and having fun. It’s about learning to work smarter and not necessarily harder. It’s about family.

My fitness goals are simple. Keep lifting because I love it. Do fun cardio when I can – swimming, kayaking, hiking etc. And try out new things to see what my body can do.

I want to walk on my hands, I want to do more pull-ups, and I want to do a somersault on the trampoline (which should be interesting as I’m afraid of heights lol).

No more dieting, no more counting calories. I’ve spent the last few years retraining myself to pay attention to my body’s cues. I know real hunger from boredom hunger. I know what foods make me feel the best and I know one day of extravagance will not undo anything. No more stressing over every mouthful, trying to hit macro targets or stay out of the ‘red’.

Now is the time to be true to myself and to finally learn to treat myself with the respect my body deserves. And that is my goal for 2015.

Why you should stop comparing the amount you can lift to what others can do.

Weight is relative.

This is a 10kg plate (about 22lb). Two of these on a light bar (about 8kg) is my 12 rep Romanian dl in BT3 New Rules of Lifting Supercharged.

That makes about 28kg all up (a little over 60lb). Seems light, doesn’t it?
Until you realise that I’m only 145cm (4’9) and weigh 40kg (89lb). Then it’s 70% of my body weight.

Of course, for lower reps of proper dl I can lift bodyweight and more, but 12reps is the current stage and I ain’t out to kill myself ;)

So lift what is heavy for you, everyone is different, and don’t compare yourself or your numbers to others.

They are just that, numbers, and don’t and can’t define how strong/fit/powerful you are.

Learning to eat in my own way

It’s not always pretty, but it is yummy. And it may not look like much to some, but this was my lunch today. Leftover steak, eggs and spinach with some pine nuts and the usual sweet chilli sauce (I think I’m addicted to the stuff).

I listen to my body’s cues and I eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m full.

I’m not low-carb, I’m not Paleo, I’m not anything labelled. We eat gluten free because my husband and son have Coeliac Disease. Do I have gluten sometimes when out? Hell yes!

I eat lactose or dairy free because even the smallest amount will have me throwing up within the hour. I mean, I love cheesecake, but not THAT much.

We eat low-amine because my daughter has shown intolerances to it, the main offenders being cocoa/cacao, grapes, oranges, bananas & tomatoes (all determined through a medically supervised elimination diet). My brother has an anaphylactic reaction to grapes, so I am careful with how much she eats of those foods.

I don’t add much sugar to things because I have Poly-cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and a family history of diabetes. That doesn’t mean that I think sugar/carbs are evil. I just need to keep an eye on it for my individual health needs. I train a lot, and carbs give me energy, so I eat them, keeping as low GI as I can (blueberries are my current favourite). I don’t actually like bread much, so I rarely eat it. Except when I have a craving for vegemite toast. And then I eat vegemite toast.

I get the judgements and I get the comments. Trust me, I think I’ve heard them all over the years. From a slightly chubby child to being a tiny, skinny person, to an overweight mumma, and then down to a small, muscular person who lifts heavy things, I’ve had a lot of things said for my benefit.
The one that is currently bugging me today is the “that’s only a small amount, you should eat like a normal person!”. Yeah, that might actually work if I was, you know, the size of a normal person instead of a 12 year old.

I tried ‘eating like a normal person’, and guess what happened? I became overweight.

I’ve spent the last 2 years re-training myself to eat to my own hunger cues. If I’m not hungry at breakfast time (you know, in the morning), I probably won’t eat then, but instead will ‘break my fast’ later in the day. If I’m hungry at that time of the day, then I’ll eat. Life isn’t a static series of events, each day will be different. I prefer to eat slowly, and I prefer 1-2 small meals throughout the day and a larger one at night (maybe a couple of snacks thrown in there, depends on the day). It’s just how I am.

Eat the way you want to eat, when you feel like eating, and what you want to eat. Be mindful of portion sizes, but otherwise just do what works for you.

And if someone does things different to you, that’s okay. The world would be a boring place if we were all the same.

Gluten free, Dairy free Gingerbread

Last year I came across this recipe for Gingerbread Trees in the Australian Healthy Food Guide (December 2013 edition). I made several batches last Christmas and it was a huge hit, even with the kids and adults that didn’t have to be gluten or dairy free. I have fond memories of my nephew grabbing a couple of biscuits every time he walked past the container – he was most disappointed when they were all gone! So I made him some more lol

Today my girl had a class party and she requested the gingerbread. I managed to whip it up yesterday afternoon and used some of the cute cookie cutters I picked up with the latest Taste.com magazine (I may or may not have succumbed to buying the magazine purely because of the cookie cutters – I could have a slight addiction to cooking magazines…)

Of course, any slightly broken or misshapen cookies needed to be ‘taste-tested’ with ice cream last night. Hopefully my girl’s class mates will like them as much as she does.

Summertime snacks- fruit and CoYo coconut yoghurt

Summer means lots and lots of yummy fruit to choose from. The girl and I got a little excited at the fruit & vege store on the weekend.

Today’s lunch time snack was CoYo coconut yoghurt and an iced coffee with Liddells lactose free milk (it would have had actual ice in it except someone put an empty tray back in the freezer…)

I love this yoghurt and am so glad I found it in the little fruit & vege store at my local shops. It’s rich, delicious, and keeps me full and content for ages. I’ve tried a few coconut yoghurts now, and this one is definitely my favourite.