Week 7, Improving !

Many people ask me where I am getting the motivation to keep pushing on. After 7 weeks of no booze, healthy eating and serious training I feel it is only getting easier. Back at the start of my 12WBT I lit the healthy fire in the belly by setting goals and making promises to myself to see this thing out. I told myself that no matter what is happening and how I am feeling I WILL complete all my training sessions and I WONT give in to the desire to splurge on crappy foods. I am an all or nothing kind of guy. Some people say that its a little extreme but thats just who I am and how I work. Losing weight and getting fit is like a very serious maths equation and if you don't do your homework and study you won't get the right answer, especially if your like me who dropped mathematics after year 10. If I was to give advice to anyone thinking about starting something like this I would say "Want it, want it more than you have wanted anything else in the world. Make it the number one focus in your life and let it consume you. Take every training session by the horns and wrestle that bull all the way to the floor. This is your life, live it to its fullest." Phil from Hexey, one of my many motivators on this road to a better me told me about this motivating video he had watched. Its one of the best things I have seen and really got me thinking. Take 5 minutes out of your life to check this out. How bad do you want it?

Another huge part of my motivation is seeing improvements. The feeling of any improvement, wether it be big or small is like a high that no one can take away from you. Its a natural high that can only come from hard work and dedication. Over the last 7 weeks I have watched myself lose fat (7kgs), lift more weight, swim more laps, faster and just in general be able move my body in a more strong, comfortable and controlled direction than I ever have in my life and it feels fantastic. It's a high that money can't buy and you only want more. I said I was going to start to step it up and I feel I have. For example, this week I got to Swim squad 30mins early and swam an extra 300m of Freestyle drills. I haven't got the best stroke in the world and Steve (my swim coach) is doing his best to try and help me adjust it. I figure if he is trying to help me then I owe it to him to try and help myself also.


Another thing I have noticed over the last 4 weeks was my weight loss after eating Hexey. It has almost tripled and my energy levels have gone through the roof. To be honest, right from the start I was doing my very best to follow the 12WBT nutrition plan to the very last spinach leaf but as my training increased and due to warm weather my work got more intense it just became physically impossible. Its not that its hard to do its just that I needed to find the time and I wasn't because I like to fill my day to the fullest. My problems started at about the week 3 mark when I was time poor and replacing what should have been healthy home cooked Mish Bridges meals with take away meals. Over that next 2 weeks I only made weight losses of 0.2 of a kilo. They were still improvements but i knew after all the work I was putting in I could of had more. At the 5 week mark I found Hexey and began trying their food for some lunches and dinners as well as incorporating Mish's home cooked 12WBT meals when I could. In those last 2 weeks I have dropped 0.7kgs each week, averaging about 6 hours sleep at night (with a nana nap during the day if time permits) and feeling bloody fantastic. I really think I have found a winning combination at the moment and its driving me to want to push myself harder and faster for the back end of this challenge.

Hexey's Maple Atlantic Salmon = Amazing

As far as I'm concerned, Saturday is the best of the week. I spend every other day just looking forward to the next one! Most days I wake at 4:15am for work so this Saturday I had a sleep in and didn't get out of bed till 5:30am. I headed down to the beach to take the dog for a walk and wasn't it worth it, Bondi was glowing. I love my Saturday mornings walking the dog, its our time to bond and enjoy the world without all the hustle and bustle of tourists that Bondi is famous for.

Bondi, Saturday 29th October @ 6am = Bliss

After a serious ball throwing and burying session with my 4 legged, fury best mate I headed up to my usual Shift60 Full Throttle session. We had a really good gang up there with Loz from Body Science, Phil from Hexey Foods, my girl friend Jessie-Anne and Chappo from the lifeguards. Its so much fun training with a group of friends in such and electric atmosphere that Shift60 provides. Combine that with serious "get you in the mood music" and "fundamental physical conditioning" you've got yourself an excellent workout.


Half an hour after being home and showered Jessie-Anne and I were packing the car with towels, wetsuits, healthy snacks and a dog. We were headed 1.5 hours North West of Sydney to a beautiful little spot on the Hawksbury River called Wisemans Ferry, home of Sydney Ski School. Sydney Ski School is run by an awesome fella named Bill who has been water skiing these parts since he was knee high to a grass hopper. We arrived to find Bill anchored of the beach, in his "top of the line" Ski Nautique boat ready and waiting for us to get out there and have some fun. The weather was fine, the water was like glass and I am pretty sure we saw 1 other boat on the river. A Water Skiers Dream ! My history is Water Skiing goes back to when I was very young. We had a holiday place on the Hawksbury River for most of my young life, it's where my sisters and I spent most of our childhood weekends playing in the mud and learning to water ski and wake board. My fondest memory up there was going on my dads shoulders while he skied, he could jump the wake with me hanging on for grim death. Sometime's I wouldn't know where to grab on and cover his eyes by accident! 
Today I was really excited for Jessie-Anne coming water skiing with me, it really is so much fun and knowing how athletic she is I had a good feeling she would pick it up quite easily. I was so proud of her. Bill was such a great instructor, fantastic host and just all round good guy. He really ensured we had the time of our lives. Now the only thing with water skiing is because you are having so much fun you don't realise the serious all over body workout you are getting till later. Jessie-Anne and I came off reasonably okay but I put that down to the serious training we have been doing lately, anyone else thinking about taking it on without prior training or physical fitness, just make sure you have a light stretch before and a really good stretch after or your gonna feel it the next day. Either way its well worth it, Jessie-Anne and I have been grinning from ear to ear ever since :) Check out the action below:

Thanks to my beautiful mother Trish, below are some shots of me as a whipper snapper !

Me on Dad's shoulders

Learning the board

Moving on to 2 ski's

Learning to drop a ski

And finally getting onto 1 ski with my big sister

I realised that I forgot to put the stack I had in the first youtube video. After putting so many of Jessie-Annes stacks on here I thought it was only fair that you can laugh at me also.

After a day like that you couldn't think it could get any better, but it did. We arrived back in sunny Sydney at around 5:00pm which meant we still had 3 more hours of day light. Can you think of a better way than to spend a lazy late Saturday afternoon than out on the rocks at North Bondi having a swim in the ocean and getting some vitamin D, I can't ! 

Sundays are meant to be rest day but I find it really hard, how can you sit down and do nothing when the sun is shining and there is so much life to live? Unfortunately its been scientifically proven that your tired and torn muscles need time to rest and repair for them to keep working at 100% so as hard as it is today, I took that advice and had a sleep in followed by a lazy walk with the dog.

After lunch I had to shoot down to Bondi for a photo with a giant moustache that's been built on the beach. Some of us lifeguard boys are helping out with a great cause called MOVEMBER. Its all about raising funds and awareness to Prostate Cancer and Depression, both very serious diseases amongst Australian men and something that touched my life when my dad had to have his prostate removed after doctors found traces of cancer in it when I was in my early teens. Im not sure if anyone has noticed but I have had this thing growing on my top lip for the past 3 weeks, they asked us if we could have one for the photo. I personally don't think it suits me but its all for a great cause and I'm more than happy to help out.

Just like to say a big "Thank You" to everyone thats left comments on my blog so far. I do read them and appreciate the time you take to write them. Much love :)

Hope everyone has a great week.

RIP IN !

Reidy :)

Week 6, Halfway and learning to fly !

Today is the day I hit the halfway mark and how good am I feeling?! This week I was worried I would lose some intensity but if anything I have stepped it up. My training is going great and my healthy eating is better than ever with big thanks to the guys at Hexey, they are definitely saving me from stress on those full on busy days. My results on the scales were twice as good as my previous 2 weeks with a lose of 0.7 kilos and I am really happy with how things are going so far.


I mentioned to Chappy, one of the trainers from Shift60 the other day that the one thing I missed and craved the most was Pizza, Crust, Half, Gralic prawns & Half Peri Peri Chicken pizza to be exact. He explained to me why this might be. Scientists did an experiment many years ago using rats. They had little vending machines filled with numerous little balls containing addictive substances and each time a rat wanted one they had to push the button 1 more time than the last for another one. So say for example a rat wanted a sugar ball they hit the button once and 1 would come out but say he wanted another one he had to push the button twice then if he wanted another one he had to push the button 3 times, and so on and so on. He was telling me the statistics on some of the highest hits which were Salt, about 350 pushes of the button. Sugar, about 450 pushes of the button. Cocain, about 550 pushes of the button. But the highest of them all was a ball that was a combination of Sugar, Salt and all the other nasties that go into pizza and guess what the score was... Wait for it... 1250 pushes of the button. That rat was willing to push the button 1250 times just to get one little ball of guilty pleasure. Now me being the smart arse that I am I turned to him and said "just imagine the arm workout the rat was getting right there, he must of had some bloody big guns". But it really put things into perspective.


Friday rolled around so quickly and wasn't it a beautiful day. I was out having a fun little surf on my SUP (stand up paddle board) in the afternoon when I got to thinking. Doing these Super Fun Saturday Sessions have been so instrumental in keeping me sane. They give me something to look forward to each week, are something different, always physical and a lot of fun. The other plus side is they keep me from thinking about having a beer on a Friday and by the end of them I'm usually to tired to think about a beer on Saturday night. Its really easy to fall into a vortex of back to back booze filled weekends. I'm so stoked that I found the 12WBT, it's given me a whole new lease on life!

Friday @ North Bondi = Bliss

Saturday morning started with my usual Shift60, Full throttle class but I had another fellow 12WBT'er come along for the ride. It's Melissa's first time on the 12WBT program and I could see by her glowing smile she was loving life. She ripped right into the class and gave it everything she had. When she sent me the below picture on twitter after the session I was so proud of her. Good on you Melissa, hope to see you back there next Saturday !

Melissa's stats after Shifting for 60 !

I had to bolt out of the class 10mins earlier to get to work at Bondi. Hoppo had rostered me on to do the jet ski water safety for the first ever, 12km Bondi to Watson's Bay paddle race. It had over 200 competitors on all sorts of ocean craft like Ski's, SUP's, OC1's and even surf row boats. Hoppo was racing on a ski with his good mate Tommy. They took out their double ski division and were the 4th craft to cross the line. Not a bad effort for a couple of 40+ year olds !

Race Course

Hoppo and Tommy powering along

Kailan on the other lifeguard Jet Ski

From work I had to bolt again, I was off for my date with the circus ! This weeks Super Saturday Fun Session I was teaming up with my good friend Amelia Burton and her mates for some high flying antics at Sydney Trapeze School.  Apart from being one of the greatest Australians I know, Amelia is very flexible and athletic with more competitive drive than soon to be 11 x world surfing champion Kelly Slater so there was no way I was getting lured into any "who can do the craziest trick" bets. My goals for the session were to hang on, have fun and not get hurt. We had the best time learning tricks and achieving things we never though possible. The crew at The Sydney Trapeze School are friendly, helpful and a very talented bunch, they take their safety very seriously which is very comforting to know when your standing 10 meters off the ground about to launch yourself into the sky on a trapeze. Its something I reckon everyone should definitely try. I think its pretty safe to say I won't be running away with the circus anytime soon but Amelia on the other hand just may have found her calling!

After a good nights sleep I was back down at Bondi for work at 6am this morning. The Sydney International Food Festivals, Breakfast on Bondi was kicking off. What an amazing experience. Sydney siders were welcome to join celebrity chefs Bill Granger and Hayden Quinn along with some thrilling didgeridoo players and a 50 piece orchestra to have breakfast on the beach as the sun rises. Unfortunately the clouds were being party poppers and we didn't get one, Bondi's famous for. The huge crowd was still buzzing (except for the ones waiting in the coffee queue's) and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. I also got to meet some lovely ladies from the Sydney Chapter of the 12WBT gang. I forgot to ask them what they were having for breakfast but I have no doubt it was healthy !

Busiest I have seen Bondi @ 7am in a while !

Heading into week 7 I'm going to do a 800m time trial in the pool, It'll be good to see how close I am to achieving my goal of breaking 11mins. In the weights department I'm also gonna ramp it up by trying to lift heavier weights with less reps. I really wanna bring the thunder in the second half. Bring on the next 6 weeks, I'm coming to smash you.


Happy Lazy Sunday everyone !


Reidy

Week 5, Powering on !

I can't begin to explain how fortunate I feel to have such amazing people around me helping and motivating me through this 12WBT. Some may say "what's he talking about? He doesn't need to lose weight" or "It's easy for him, he was already fit before".  Well, to all those people my reply would be: Yes, maybe it is a little easier for me because I have been there before and I know what it takes.  Also, Yeah, maybe I didn't have to lose as much weight as other people, but I feel- and I'm sure others will agree with me - that we are all facing the same battles with temptations and bad habits. For example, I love meat pies, every time I walk past a pie shop I wanna smash one in my face so bad it's not funny; but part of my motivation is knowing there are other people having the same sort of thoughts and if I give in I am letting the team down.


I'm now wrapping up week 5 of my 12WBT and I'm down to my normal weight of 69kgs, but once you slim down it's easy to get into a mind set of, okay so I'm skinny now, the work's all done. I don't want that to happen to me. I wanna look as fit as I feel so I'm here for the full 12 weeks. With 7 weeks to go I'm feeling like I could take on the world. Part of that feeling comes from the support you get from everyone around you. The people that genuinely ask "how are you going?" and motivate you because they want you to achieve your goals as much as you do. They're the people I surround myself with and I wouldn't have gotten this far without them. Thanks guys, you know who you are ! 

Pickle & Chappy

V-Tak

I feel like a bit of a broken record when I say that my training this week has been great and I haven't missed a session but whether it be my 4 weights sessions at North Bondi SLSC, 3 Shift 60 classes, 2 swim squads, my Super Saturday Sessions or even just getting out there and doing something active like walking the dog, I'm proud of myself for not missing any and giving them all I have got !


Like a lot of people my biggest problem is time. There is never enough of it in the day. That leads me to confess a secret, this week I have been trying out a new company that has recently opened for business in Sydney called Hexey. Hexey deliver fresh, high protein, low carb, delicious meals, to your door, daily. Now I do understand that part of my 12WBT is about following the nutrition plan and cooking Mish's meals because it will help me to understand the right foods I need to fuel my body to live healthily. I do follow it when ever it is realistically possible for me but most days (especially through the week) I leave the house at 4:15am and don't stop till 7:30pm. After a full day doing various jobs and 2 very serious training sessions I need a full nights sleep to be able to do it all again the next and I won't get it if I'm up half the night cooking and doing dishes. Thats where the team at Hexey have offered to come along and lend a hand. 

The food they supply is cooked the day you eat it and delivered to your house or work, fresh every morning. They currently deliver in the Sydney CBD, Bondi Junction and surrounding suburbs and are expanding their delivery areas every week, so check in with them to see if they can deliver to you.

Hexey is designed for time poor people that want to either lose weight, build muscle or even just maintain a healthy lifestyle. I actually met Phil and Jeremy (two of the three Hexey owners) the other day and they are real, down to earth guys. Jeremy lost a staggering 52 kilo's with hard training and eating the awesome wholesome food Hexey supplies and he looks fantastic. If you have time, please take a minute to read their story here. It's very inspiring ! They are a great little Sydney company just trying to help the time poor, overweight people of this city achieve a better life and I am super stoked to be a part of their ever growing list of clients.

I didn't get the chance to complete my 12WBT weekly surprise a few weeks ago which was to find a with a healthy snack thats easy and quick to make so I though I would put one on here that I got from Deano, my lifeguard team leader at Bondi. Deano is one of the healthiest people I know and is always chowing on the most amazing food at work. One day he was eating what I thought was raw meat so I dared to ask, "What the bloody hell is that?" He replied "Here, try some" My suspicions were correct, it was raw meat, the best I have ever tasted. He gave me the recipe and it goes a little something like this.

Take raw organic chuck steak minced, add some fresh lemon juice, diced spanish onion also maybe some coriander if you like and mix it all together. Leave in the fridge over night. The lemon juice will slightly cook the meat. Serve with some Avocado and Coz lettuce. 


It's so delicious, don't knock it till you try it :)

Super Saturday started with my usual 7am "Full Throttle" class at Shift60. The twist this time was getting to take one of you along. Michaela is a lovely young lady from Brisbane. Most of her training consist of Yoga so this Shift 60 class was something a little different for her.

I am glad lots of you liked my pole dancing video, we had such a great workout and a lot of fun. What more could you want ! This week along with Corey O, Brad Malyon and Chappo we ventured down to Rose Bay for my Super Saturday Fun Session and boy didn't we get a flogging ! My mate Belly runs the OZ Stand Up Paddle school down there and has joined forces with the lovely Nat Marnoch from No Attitude Training to start a paddle box fitness session every Saturday morning. I'm already pretty confident on a SUP (stand up paddle board) and have done a bit of open ocean paddling but I have never actually done a proper training session where you paddle under serious fatigue. The idea is fantastic and the work out is second to none. With Belly's excellent knowledge of stand up paddling and Nat's well structured boxing elements it's a session that suits all levels of fitness. The other bonuses are you get to exercise outdoors, in the warm sun on Sydney's amazing harbour. I can't find a reason why you wouldn't have a go? If you think it might be something you'd want to try, Like Paddle Box on Facebook to see when the next session is coming up !

There is a great App out called "My fitness pal". You just enter your details and goal weight it works out the exact amount of calories you are allowed for each day and what you can and can't eat.

I wanna challenge everyone to spend this week monitoring their calories. Even if your not doing the 12WBT or on a diet. Im going to do it because I really think it will help me be more aware of how many calories are in the foods I am putting in my mouth.Please let me know how your doing and what results you get in my in my comments section, I would really be interested to know what everyone thinks. 


I also read a great blog piece from my friend Amelia Burton about "People that are exercising but not losing weight". Its got some very interesting facts and really is a great read. Check it out HERE.


Hitting the halfway mark next week and I'm frothing. The last 5 have been so much fun. Don't get me wrong, I do love a good night on the sauce, beers, booze, stubbs what ever you want to call it but I think it has made me realise just how much of my life I have already wasted either partying or in to much pain to do anything from partying the night before. Oh dear, I think I might actually be growing up :) 


Thanks for stopping in, till next time.


Reidy :)

Week 4: It's all about the pole !

WOW. What an awesome week. So excited to be 1/3 of the way through my 12WBT but I can assure you it hasn't been rosy. This week I have really been struggling with my "inner Labrador" (as Mish puts it). In my down time between work and training I find myself walking around the house looking for things to snack on. Its really lucky that our cupboards have nothing that could do a lot of damage in them or I could be in all sorts. 


The training I have been looking forward to the most lately has been swim squad. As a kid, my sisters and I used to train a lot in the pool, being coached by some of the best in Sydney. Both my sisters were top class, with one of them making it to the Pan Pacific games to come home with a few medals. I, on the other hand, found my sweet tooth and skipped training to pig out on lollies and junk food. Thats when I stacked on the kilos as an early teen and gave up on exercise. Since starting my 12WBT I have found a pool with legendary coach Steve Alderman. Steve used to coach some of Australia's best olympians at the Sydney university pool over in Randwick. He has been really helping me with my stroke and is motivating me to push the button to reach my sub 11min for 800m goal. Many of the other lifeguard boys have been coming to his swim squads on a Tuesday and Thursday night which give them a fun feel.

On Wednesday morning I did my weekly weigh in. I was a little disappointed to find I had only lost 0.2 of a kilo. Although I am of the understanding that I have pretty much lost the majority of the fat I had put on and will now, hopefully start to actually gain weight in the form of muscle !


Wednesday night I added a little extra to my session at Shift 60 by riding my push bike to the studio, which, might I add is at the top of a very steep hill. Not only did I smash 770 calories all up, I also got my heart rate up to 184 beats per minute. I am only new to training with a heart rate monitor but I'm absolutely loving it. To be able to monitor your progress as you go is so interesting. It really allows you to push yourself harder and faster every time you train. Do yourself a favour people, GET ONE !

If you have ever watched the episodes of Bondi Rescue when we have the Lifeguard challenge you would have seen Chappo and I have some friendly rivalry. Well this year the banta has already begun with Chappo recently joining twitter and using it as a tool to try and put me off my game. Im quietly confident I can take him down but he assures me and everyone else who care to listen to his dribble that he may have a few tricks up his sleeve this year. I reckon he is all talk "blah blah blah". The Lifeguard challenge this year has been moved forward to mid december and will be a different format so I reckon its anyones game. Bring it on !

Iron Men

This weeks Super Saturday began at 6am with my 2nd 12WBT Fitness Test. I was expecting big things after all the training I had been doing but was sadly disappointed when my time for the 1000m sprint was 8 seconds slower than my 1st 4 weeks earlier. Even though we did extend the course a little after I used a GPS earlier in the week and found the course we had done originally was 30m short I was still expecting a big improvement. After taking into account a 12 hour day of serious manual labouring for a friend the day before I put it down to fatigue and am determined to smash the next one in 4 weeks time. On a brighter note, my flatmate Angela smashed her time and together all our other tests improved dramatically so I still had something to smile about.

Straight from the beach we raced up Bondi road to Shift60 for the 7am "Full Throttle" class. Jessie and I were joined by fellow lifeguard, Corey O and the lovely Amelia Burton. "Meels" as she's better know, is a walking, talking health and fitness encyclopaedia that loves to run marathons. You would have seen her putting the beautiful Kerri anne Kennerley through her paces most mornings on her weekday TV show called, Mornings with Kerri Anne. We became friends when we had a little bet on twitter. The wager was who would do the best time for the Sydney half marathon a few years back. Believe it or not, I won the bet and Meels donated my winnings to the McGrath foundation for me ! Since then we have become good friends, meeting up to sometimes run with a local running club called Sydney Striders. Using her powers of motivation she some how convinced me to do my very first marathon up on the Gold Coast only to take off on me at the 32km mark and smash me by about 20min. Maybe it was payback for the half marathon, maybe not, but either way the feeling of completion after finishing my very first full marathon was unbelievable and I have her to thank.


Our full throttle class was a ripper. All 4 of us were pushing each other to the max on the treadmill intervals. Again I got my heart rate above the 180 beats per minute, was covered in sweat and absolutely knackered by the end.

After a hot shower and quick healthy breakfast Jessie, Corey and I were back in the car headed to The Pole Dancing Academy in Bondi Junction for a Super Saturday Fun Session of Pole dancing. I have always admired what these very fit and extremely strong girls and guys do and thought why not? How bad could I be at it? When we arrived out the front, by chance, our instructor named Shimmy was parking her car and recognised us, especially Corey. Funnily enough he had taught her how to surf 10 years ago. We got straight up there and into a warm up, it wasn't easy and really showed my lack of flexibility. Before we got started on leaning tricks with the pole in walked Aboriginal pole dancing legend and "Australia's got talent" semi finalist, Matty Shields. He was there to practice but was more than happy to say hello, have a chat and even give us some tips.  See Matty's mind blowing semi final performance below:

Now, you'd think having Shimmy and Matty (who placed 3rd at the World Pole Dancing championships as a team in budapest earlier year) as our instructors, we were destined to walk out of there, well, pretty good pole dancers. Ill let you all be the judge, check out the video below and let me know what you think in the comments section. Please be kind :)

Pole Dancing was one of the most fun but also hardest things I have ever done in my life. Its really given me a whole new respect for what these wonderful performers do and I can't begin to imagine the time and effort they put in on a day to day basis to perfect this beautiful art. If you have ever thought about giving it a try I highly recommend it. Don't be scared off because of its level of difficulty, like anything, it just takes time and practice.


Thanks to everyone that sent me emails wanting to SHIFT60, I was blown away. Really wish I could take everyone along. Looking forward to smashing out a Shift 60 session with Melissa Williams and Michaela Banks, its going to be loads of fun !


Today is Lazy Sunday for me. I'm gonna take some photos, learn some guitar, walk the dog and watch some Rugby. Come on Wallabies. 


Thanks again for stopping by, hope everyone has had a great week.


BRING ON WEEK 5 !


Cheers


Reidy

Week 3, and rolling on.

As the days start to roll into weeks my 12 week body transformation is coming along nicely. The routine of eating healthy and training consistently is getting easier and easier. Like Mish Bridges says:


"WILLPOWER IS LIKE A MUSCLE, THE MORE YOU TRAIN IT THE STRONGER IT BECOMES".


I have had another successful week in the weights room, Shift 60 and in the swimming pool. My body is feeling stronger and my mind clear !


Now thinking about everything above it made me wonder why I ever actually eat crap food? Why do I get lazy and not feel like training? Im no rocket scientist but I have sailed the weight loss sea enough to know there is nothing gained out of letting yourself go. You lose self esteem, feel like crap all the time and everything is hard. I want this experience to become a total lifestyle change for me and not just a 12 week fling. No amount of junk food is worth a full and fun life !


This week I started taking some extra nutrition I got from the crew at Body Science. The protein powder tastes amazing and is the best on the market. Im also taking their multi-vitamin. Its packed with all the extras my body needs after the torture I've been putting it through. I understand supplements aren't for everyone but I do believe If you're training at a higher level your body needs to be well fuelled and there is nothing wrong with getting a little help from the best in the business !


I worked at different beaches through the week and WOW, didn't we have some weird days of weather !


Tamarama Thursday started like this:

Turned into this:

And finished with this:

Then on Saturday Bondi started like this:

And finished with this:

Also on Saturday I teamed up with fellow lifeguard Azza B in promoting a fun new craze thats sweeping the world called Gauswheeling. The Gauswheel is a cross between a Scooter and a Penny Farthing bicycle. I was hopeless on the thing as its a little tricky to pick up first time but some of the pro guys that ride these things were ripping the place apart. It was a fun morning watching the public (mainly kids) trying it out and making me look stupid !

On Saturday night my willpower was put to its greatest test since I started my 12WBT. I attended the engagement party of friend, fellow lifeguard and Ironman enemy Chris "Chappo" Chapman and his girlfriend Amy. The whole set out was amazing, located in the backyard of a house over looking the usually stunning but on this night windy Tamarama. They had delicious finger foods, fully serviced bar and a live band cranking out some rocking tunes. I prepared myself by having a healthy meal before we went and even gobbled down an apple in the car along the way. Once there I kept my drooling to a minimum as people like Whippet and Azza tried to tempt me with ice cold beers, piping hot crust pizzas and colourful cup cakes. To be honest, at the time I did feel a little rude, these wonderful people had welcomed me to their party to celebrate a very special chapter in their life and here I was saying no to it all but using the research I have done and the knowledge I have learned of whats best for my body I did have a glass of red wine and opted for the more healthier finger foods that came around. Sometimes to achieve your own goals you do need to feel a little selfish, its just a fact of life.


I woke Sunday morning to horrendous weather in Sydney, there was no way the Dragon Boats were going out in that weather so I jumped back to bed and enjoyed a very rare and well earned sleep in ! Later that day I was due for a showdown on the squash court with Deano, he beat me 3-0 the last time we played and I was hungry for a win. Kerr Box, Deano and myself have been playing squash against each other for the last 6 years and its always very competitive. We haven't played as much since Kerr Box snapped his Achilles playing about 2 years ago. He swears he will never play again but I still have hope. Squash is a fun game but is also an awesome way to get a sweat going. Todays game was a thriller but you will have to watch the video below to see who came up trumps :)

I know I ramble on a lot about how much I am enjoying training at Shift60 so to say sorry I'm going to pay for 2 people to come along with me for a "Super Saturday training Session there and experience it for themselves. Ill even shout the both of you a HEALTHY breakfast at one of Bondi's many delicious organic cafe's down the road after. All you need to do is shoot me an email saying "I WANNA SHIFT 60" to: " lifeguardreidy@gmail.com " and I will randomly select 2 people. Please don't feel intimidated as the shift 60 programmes cater to all levels of fitness. Obviously your gonna need to either live in the Sydney area or be able to be in Bondi on the Saturday morning chosen.

Coming into week 4 I have to do my 2nd fitness test to see how I've improved on week 1. Really looking forward to seeing where I am at ! My flatmate Angela has been going great guns also and I can't wait to see her improvements as well.


Thanks again for stopping by everyone.


Reidy


Live your dreams !