hi guys! thank you again. i never thought it possible - but i’m learning something new from EVERY single posting so once again my thanks to you all. as a reward i will post a picture of myself in wedding dress in march (just to balance things out a bit on the photos board!) 
i’m seeing my trainer tomorrow but i’m having coffee beforehand with dan (dan is pretty awesome - he is absolutely huge and is always telling me that i over-do it and need to go for more focused workouts). he also tells me i over-complicate things. hopefully he will be my new trainer. i’ve also decided to tell my current trainer quite simply that i need a change because of the wedding and to not take it personally. he probably will… but i’ll just have to deal with that because i’ve put this off for too long now…
back to diet!! thanks guys!!! couple of quick things - i went on hydroxycut last year and it messed me up quite badly. i started using it as a stimulant, over-did it on the cardio and landed up with a chest infection that took nine months to move (didn’t stop me getting on the treadmill for an hour a day tho’). a lesson to all i guess. i want to try and stay away from supplements as much as possible and to have as much balance as i can. mostly because i noticed that i tend to get radical results from radical approaches but these eventually backfire. like i went on a ketogenic diet (i know i’ve mentioned this before) and lost so much weight but i stuck on it and my workouts got worse and worse obviously because of the low glycogen stores. the one thing that did help was following berardi’s advice on post-workout nutrition. i’m going to do this for the rest of my life so i want to find a plan that works for me in all ways and that i can implement without making sacrifices but just healthy compromises
you may all find this interesting and also quite sad but i found out on THURSDAY last week (and remember i’ve been working out for six years now) that you need CARBOHYDRATES TO SYNTHESISE PROTEIN!!! i did not know this. my trainer told me that fibrous carbs (like broccoli and spinach) with a protein is enough. apparently not true at all. i guess that explains the bloat i’d get after every meal of bloody tuna and broccoli that i’d force down my throat twice every night and the low blood sugar afterwards…
so, and i know it’s not that long to estimate results but since last week i’ve been having brown wild rice in the evenings for two meals and my vegetables in a separate dish. i follow this with half a tub of cottage cheese an hour before bed (casein protein - which i found out about from this board!). so far i’m getting small but significant results. i did meltdown (exactly as given) on saturday and had no instances of cravings which i normally get late at night - probably due to the low carb thing. also. my hiit today was very good - again probably because i’ve got more carbs in my system. i did read the cheater’s diet (thanks char-dawg) but i’ve decided to give this a miss mostly because i think it is correct that i’ve been over-complicating things and i want to try to get back to the basics. i think the point i made previously about “tightening up” after those odd weekends where i would eat freely has alot to do with the low carbohydrate thing. maybe my body has just been reacting to not having enough of them. also. i think the point about the 3rd apportionment of each macronutrient is a very good idea. from what i can make out alot of this is about balance too. up until now i’ve been having 25gms of fat a day working on a 60:30:20 (p:c:f) ratios - probably not enough frankly. also. i remember that berardi said once that he always advocates his trainees to go keto for only two weeks at a time as it messed up their training. i don’t know why i never followed this advice - i guess i never thought i was training that hard anyway. what i have noticed is that while i function very well without sugar (including fruit that i can’t stand anyway) i do need cleaner carbs. i also agree with the not stressing out about things. so. i think i’m doing well… it’s only eight pounds after all but i feel like i’ve gained a million times that in knowledge!! nic 