Goals for 2015

Since we are now heading into 2015, I thought it might be a good idea to write down my top 10 goals and things that I want to accomplish this year (fitness and non-fitness related)

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1. Gain strength in all exercises and continue to increase weight lifted each week.

2. Squat 100kg.

3. Overhead Press 35kg.

4. Continue to focus on building up my core strength.

5. Go to bed earlier and work on getting more sleep (7-8 hours a night).

6. Educate myself more on nutrition and increase the micronutrients in my diet.

7. Spend less time on social media, specifically Facebook (which I have been doing for the past few months already).

8. Save $10,000 for our USA trip next year.

9. Plan our first around Australia road trip.

10. Read 2 self-improvement books.



As you may have noticed, I have not put anything like ‘lose 5kg’ or ‘get to 16% body fat’ as a goal that I want to achieve. The reason for this is because, while that is great, I need to focus on goals that aren’t purely vanity-focused. Now I am not saying that you shouldn’t have a vanity-focused goal, but I have tried and failed with this many times before. Only working towards a certain number just does not work for ME. It is not enough to hold me accountable and keep me on track.

Focusing on my health and strength has allowed me to have a goal that I can really work towards each day for an extended period of time. Before when I would reach a weight loss goal I would celebrate that I had reached it and then I would fall back into bad eating and not exercising. Having strength gains and health as a goal makes it easier for me to stick to as a lifestyle. The weight loss aspect is just a bonus!

Home Gym Set Up

I have had a few people ask me about my home gym - what's in it, what does it look like, how much have we spent on everything etc. So since I have just recently tidied it up, I thought I would take some photos of it. Keep in mind, we did not purchase everything at once - we have slowly added equipment over the last 6 years. My husband and I worked out that we would be paying $500 a year each to go to a local gym, so why not use that money to buy our own equipment that we can use at any time.

At the beginning of this year we built a 9x7 metre shed down the back of our block, half of which is our home gym, the other half houses our camper trailer.

I think my first purchase was the SelectTech Dumbbells which cost me around $380 back in 2009. These things are awesome and it beats having a bunch of dumbbells lying around. These were difficult to come by here in Australia and the only place that sold them was eBay. I still use them for nearly every workout.

The barbell and bumper plates are my husbands, and to be honest I did not want to buy them as I thought they were way too expensive - but now I use them more than he does. I think all up for the bar and the bumper plates it cost around $800. The bumper plates come in 0.5kg, 1kg, 1.5kg, 2kg, 2.5kg, 5kg, 10kg, 15kg and 20kg.

I also have a few stability balls, an agility ladder, boxing gloves, mits, rings, foam roller, TRX and a few other bits and pieces stowed away in a box in the corner. The squat rack/cable pulley is also my husbands purchase. We got it from Gym & Fitness two years ago for around $450.

I bought my smith machine off a man who lives on the Central Coast for $250. We got the leg extension/bench from a local man for $50. We also have a sled that my husband made, but I forgot to snap a picture of it!

I would love to get a boxing bag, more cable attachments, ropes and some medicine balls to add to the collection - maybe next year.

There you have it - that is pretty much all the fitness gear that we own (aside from DVD's). I am forever thankful that I am able to exercise from home and that we took the time to save and set it up. One of our big future goals was to have our own home gym and I am so grateful that we made that goal a reality.

If you are looking at setting up a home gym, I recommend shopping around - you can find a lot of second hand fitness equipment in excellent condition for a fraction of what it would cost in the shops. Take your time and add things as you can afford it.

Hopefully this gave you some ideas for your home gym. Feel free to message me or comment below if you have any questions!

Weight Loss vs Fat Loss

It seems everyone these day's is trying to lose weight. There is always a new diet, new workout program or new fat burning supplement promising you that you can have a bikini body in 30 days. But is losing weight the same as losing fat? People seem to use both terms interchangeably and it can get confusing. By the end of this post you’ll understand the difference between weight loss & fat loss, but also which one you should aim for and how.

Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss. What’s the difference? Let’s start by defining weight loss & fat loss so you know what I mean here.
Weight Loss: You want to lower your body-weight, the weight you see on the scale. The weight of your bones, muscles, organs and body fat.
Fat Loss: You want to lower your body fat, the amount of fat you have on your body, while retaining as much muscle as possible.

Metabolic Damage

'You should be eating the maximum amount of calories possible and doing the least amount of cardio necessary while still losing fat.'
You start working out and cutting your calories to ensure that you have a calorie deficit. The weight is coming off at a steady pace, then all of a sudden you hit a plateau. No matter what you do the weight won’t budge, so you lower your calories and up your cardio yet again until you are doing 1-2 hours of cardio a day and eating 1200 calories. Then after a while, your weight loss stops. You still haven’t reached your goal, you are frustrated and tired and your metabolism is damaged. Now what?

Many people think that they have to drastically reduce calories and perform lots of cardio in order to lose weight, but could this actually be detrimental to our fat loss efforts? If you someone who has stopped losing weight no matter how much you exercise or cut calories  then you could be suffering from metabolic damage.

IIFYM: How Do I Gain Muscle?

In order to gain muscle you need to eat more calories than what are needed to maintain your current weight. This means you will be in a caloric surplus by around 5-10%. Along with gaining muscle, you will also gain some fat. How much fat you gain will depend on your body. The most common way to approach a bulk (especially from a females perspective) is to lean bulk. Doing a lean bulk allows you to gain muscle while gaining as little fat as possible.

In order to do a lean bulk, you need to work out the calories that are needed for bulking for your body, you can do that here. You want to input all your information into the calculator and select ‘Bulking – Cautious 5%’. I always recommend starting out with 5% to see how your body responds before increasing calories.