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So the aftermath of my Qatar & Vegas trips has now become apparent, I put on a bit of weight. This was to be expected I mean I indulged pretty heavily. There was some really awesome meals that I just had to have and I wanted to experience as much of the new foods and experiences that I could while I was away.

But now that I have been back a week and add on a little bit of a kick from Thanksgiving (not much but I did have some pumpkin pie albeit Vegan) the full effect has kicked in. I ended up stacking on about 8 pounds over 2 weeks. That is a bit to much! 1 – 3 pounds I would be ok with and I could deal with that with an extra run or just watching what I eat a bit more during the week. Nope I stacked on 8 pounds. BAD MAL!

So I go back to the tried and true method of lots of exercise and cutting back to my diet regime. I did this for so long that it is second nature to me now. But pretty much I drop a snack (i usually have 3 snacks) and then I also cut back on the amounts at main meal times. Cutting back on what I would normally eat from maintenance levels to reduction levels is a bit rough at times but I make do, I also make sure I run each and every day and get a bootcamp where I can (I want to go tonight but it depends on the bus outcomes as they are ALWAYS late).

Pretty much now that I have been able to effectively manage my weight for a while now, I know I can handle this and I just suck it up and deal with it. But it makes it tough when I was intending on tapering off after this trip and making sure that I was taking it a bit easy between now and the end of the year to recuperate a bit, but that will have to wait. I am sure that I will need to do this again after Christmas as well but first things first, getting my weight back under control.

Today is day 2 of Weight Control (I won’t call it a diet cause it isn’t) really a diet. But we shall see how it all pans out in the long run. If I can get it back under control for most of this week, awesome, but I don’t expect to lose that much in one week, at least half maybe!

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It has been a long long week full of Food, Workouts, Training, Saying goodbye and just crazyness at work. To top it all off I had a big weekend as well. I was hoping for a quiet weekend at home and I kind of got that, but not.

My weekend usually starts at 530pm Friday afternoon, the minute I walk out the door from work. It has been an on and off week weather wise and the rain was just there all my way home. It didn’t worry me because I was going to be making some batches of cookies, Anzac Biscuits to be exact. What did suck though was having to walk home in the rain from the Supermarket cause i decided to get the bus the whole way on a Friday when I normally don’t, but that paid dividends on its own ;). But it was good to get back into some baking even though a lot of the cookies didn’t turn out but that was cause I needed to experiment more with this oven and the recipes are designed for Aussie products not American (yes there are differences).

Saturday morning was an early rise a training run and then heading out, south to SeaTac to catch up with a mate Charles from Flyertalk who I had met a year ago in New York. Well this time after our brief meetup in New York it would be a slightly longer meetup (by about 30 minutes longer I think) but still good none the less. He was only in town a few hours in between flights and it was good timing with it right around Breakfast. So I took him to Randys Restaurant at Boeing Field. This place is Old School Diner. But what makes it even more Awesome is this:

From Expat Life

Yep the entire restaurant is filled with Avgeek goodness. The food is cheap, good (you know its good when there was 3 police cars parked out back) and the service is Old School. So old in fact that i think the guy serving behind the counter was around when the first aircraft flew out of Boeing Field. But still, its pretty awesome! 2 Blueberry Pancakes, a number of cups of coffee later, lots of chatting and a quick tour of Boeing Field (pity it was crappy weather or I would of taken the decent camera) and it was back to the Airport. The rest of my Saturday was spent doing housekeeping, failing at a mission 🙁 and working on photos from Vancouver.

Today was the usual things, Run, Chores (cleaning, groceries, housework the usual), bills, trolling websites, catching up on all the TV i missed during the week. But it was the run that was a bit different this week. My usual Sunday morning is either spent in the gym on the exercise bike or my day of rest. The last month though hasn’t seen me take a day off yet, but with all the good food i’d been eating that was meant to be sure. Earlier in the week I was thinking to myself “I really want to do one more 5k before the end of the year and it gets to cold.” Well low and behold my trainer Cassie points me in the direction of the “Pumpkin Dash” Supporting Woodland Park Zoo and pretty much a 5k run around Green Lake, it was like the heavens opened.

I had previously mentioned how my runs had been improving and to be honest I just wanted to see how far I could push myself. I don’t know if I over did it but I was pushing my times lower and lower. Before today my fastest 5k had been 27:55 up in Vancouver on what is now referred to as my “Macygver Route”. But I was determined to beat this, determined to knock at lest 25 seconds off it if I could. I was aiming for 27:30 if possible.

Well if you see this, you will see I well and truly smashed it!

Not quite sure how I did it, but Its right. I couldn’t believe the time when I saw my watch. I barely even looked at it. I just kept on running. I did push out hard to try and get out of the pack I was in and try to get into a bit of open space. This must of worked cause I did keep up the pace and didn’t hurt myself at all. Tell you what I will sleep well tonight probably! But still no rest, I will keep it up till next Sunday (though start backing it off just a little) when I can take my first day off in almost 6 weeks! But now I leave you so I can get some much needed sleep.

Expat Life
Vancouver Spotting 2012

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Something wierd has been going on lately with my running and I just can’t explain it. My average run (pretty much 4-5 days a week) is 5km (just over 3 miles). I usually average at least 31-33 Mins depending upon which of my running routes that I take, whether it is a flat or slight incline, twisty, curvy or just out and back no thought required. I feel thats a good pace for me, I can push myself to go the low 31s or I can rest my body a bit and end up in the high 33s. I have a number of running routes I use that allow me to vary my runs so that I am not doing the same route day after day. I have routes that are easier and some that I use for punishment (I even have an 8k and 10k loop that are for my punishment days when I have been just that little bit naughty).

But if you were to go into my running history on the Garmin Website you will see my fastest ever 5k was 28 mins and that was a proper race where I was pushing myself to the limits

As you can see, it is a really good pace and I am really happy with it. But as of late my runs on the same routes that were averaging 31-33 have dropped to be around 29-30. I can’t explain it. I don’t feel like I am pushing myself any harder (there are days that I do push myself though).

Take this mornings route for instance, here is a capture from one of my average times on the same route:

This run was barely weeks ago and to be honest, Its pretty average, not to fast, not to slow, a good pace in my eyes. But now compare this to this morning:

Same route (may not be the same direction but that shouldn’t matter with this route), Same day of the week. I don’t get it. Maybe its the colder weather forcing me to output better or I am running better in the colder weather? Maybe someone who is a pro runner can help explain it to me. Either way, I don’t feel like I am pushing myself harder at the moment, but maybe I am and just not realising it.

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Funnily enough I had been wanting to write this post for about a week now but things always get in the way causing me to stress… which was the whole point of wanting to write this post.

Lately I have had so much stress on me, most of it caused by situations that could be handled by the people causing them so much better. But I won’t go into that. What I have been noticing is that when I’m already stressed things compound quicker no matter what I do. It’s like that old quicksand adage, the more you move the quicker you sink.

I used to deal with stress at work by making sure that I didn’t take stuff home with me, but that’s just not practical some days, I also used to make sure I left my desk to take breaks, again not always practical (I actually haven’t taken a proper lunch break in almost 6 weeks, let alone a the 1 actual 10 minute break I’ve taken in a month).

A number of things cause stress in my life (and In everyone else’s).  A number of them affect everyone (work & dealing with public transport come to mind) but that is life. The joys of everyday life. We all try to cope in our own little ways. I have been struggling to find an outlet lately that will help me cope at times. Till I realized I was doing it all along and just not realizing.

After a really stressful day (more like week) I made sure I got my butt to a boot camp session no matter how late I was going to be. Everyone else was late that day so my 10 minute delay was fine. By the end of the session I was feeling much better, relaxed for the first time all day. Was that my answer now? Was exercise my outlet? Looking back it has been an outlet for a while. That early morning run, the boxing class to work your arms out, the morning walk to the bus stop. Had I really changed so much that this was now relieving stress?

I never realized just how much those days were helping me out when I just pushed myself to take that extra km or work that little bit harder, I always felt better after I just never realized I was coping with my own stress. At least now I don’t feel like that extra bit of exercise is causing me pain to my body or my life (by taking away time I could be doing other things) in fact it’s helping me deal and cope with life, and of course helping me stay fit in the process

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So I have been meaning to review this product for quite some time but only been able to do it now cause for some crazy reason it dissapeared for a while. One day while out doing my weekly grcoery shop I came across the craziest thing. I saw some ice cream that claimed 150 Calories. When I saw it as I was walking past I was like “that’s probably per serve, whatever, why even put that there”. But for some reason I took a second look. It claims its the entire Pint of ice cream for that amount of calories. So I did a bit of research online into it and it was legit. So I figured next time I am at the shops doing a buy, I will get some and try it out. Went back the next week… GONE! Recalled for some reason for a packaging problem. I didn’t see it for weeks on end. Till the other night when I was at the shops. I quickly grabbed some and put it in the freezer till last night.

From Expat Life

Now the stuff I read online was a bit of a mixed bag in reviews but to be honest, I wasn’t going to complain. I was going try it out and make my own opinion. I grabbed the “Cookies & Cream” flavour figuring that would be the safest bet. They have other flavours including Peanut Butter, Mint Chocolate and Vanilla Maple (and apparently pumpkin at certain times of the year). But if you check out the below photo. It doesn’t really look like what you would expect. Certainly doesn’t look like any other Cookies and Cream i’ve ever eaten before. The taste was ok I guess, nothing really all that over the top, not mind blowing. It was the texture that was just not right to me. I definately wouldn’t call this ice cream at all, probably why its a “frozen dessert”. It had a texture more like an Ice Block mixed with Ice Cream, kind of hard to explain but definately was not Ice Cream like at all.

From Expat Life

It was an ok Treat. Definately for those times when you want something but don’t want to feel bad eating it. For 150 calories (which is about 1.5 snacks for me) I didn’t feel guilty eating the whole pint, had that been ice cream at around 1000 calories for the pint, yeah thats a whole other story. But it wouldn’t be something I would go out of my way to get. Plus its $5.30 PER PINT! That’s almost double the cost of a Ben & Jerrys pint or even a Quart (litre) of ice cream of the normal brands. Its REALLY expensive, and something I probably won’t have all that often, But at least I know there is something out there that I can have without feeling guilty for those times when I just want to have some ice cream and not “have some ice cream”… if you know what I mean.

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I alluded to this in my last post and it will actually be a bit of an informative post… kind of.

Back when i started all my weight loss, one thing my Nutritionist taught me was to keep my snacking to 400kj or 100 Calories and she gave me a nice big list of stuff that fits into that band. Things like a Freddo Frog, 2 chocolate wheatens, all different kinds of fruit (ranging from 1 apple or a banana to an entire punnet of strawberries). It pretty much meant I could have whatever I would like as long as I used some common sense and kept it to within that range.

Well over here in the USA they have something that makes this kind of snacking so much easier. 100 calorie packs. The perfect invention in my opinion. All the good snacks you like, cookies, cake, brownies, museli bars, chips, nuts etc all conviently portioned out for you in 100 calorie packs. Could it get any better?? In some cases they are even under 100 Calories! I have found delicious yoghurts (made my Kroger foods, so generic brand but damn delicious) for 60 calories, numerous different bits and pieces but the thing that makes me happy the most is my usual morning snack at work.

I try to grab a coffee if i have the time (depends on the day really and how busy I am) and enjoy a little snack. Now my morning snack tends to be something non fruit (as thats my afternoon snack) and since I got to the USA I have had some awesome snacks. Granola bars have always been one of the easiest as they transport easily and they are generally good with a coffee. Well two snacks I have found work awesomely though one (I dont have a picture sadly) has always been the best. Hostess (the makers of twinkies) have 100 calorie packs and they have little cinnamon coffee cakes which when had with a coffee just are AMAZING!!! Now these arent big snacks, they are the perfect little snack size. 3 small little cakes about the size of a Aussie 50c piece. Bite size and yummy.

But they are treats every now and then the cakes but two that I have found are my favourites are the Quaker Oats Chewy Granola Bars – Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip or a Fibre One Browne Bar.

From Expat Life

These snacks are just awesome. Now I haven’t yet had the brownies pictured as its a new box, but the flavour i just finished off earlier in the week was the “Fudge Brownie” one and it was DAMN delicious. And the museli Granola bars are by far the most delicious ones I have EVER tasted. They go so well with a coffee and the slightly savoury taste is just perfect. It makes me so so happy to be over here and be able to have these snacks and not feel guilty. I couldn’t of done this back home at all. They just didn’t exist at all, and I struggled to find any variety at all. But over here they are all put on the plate for me to select.

Another one of my favourites are the Chocolate coated pretzels (either White or Milk) that are part of the snackwells range. God damn they are yummy! I could sit here and talk all day about them. But I won’t. I might have to send some samples home for people, I know that Costco sells these brownies and museli bars in giant boxes so that makes it even easier 😀 YAY!

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So you all know I am an Avgeek. I freely admit it these days. I don’t care what others think, its who I am. Since the whole weight loss started, I enjoy running. How can I combine these 2 loves… what do I do??

how about that! That my friends is Paine Field in Everett Washington. The home of Boeing’s big boy factory. Where they make the wide bodies. The 747-8, 777, 787 and 767. This morning I ran 5K on their runway (well next to it anyway). I had an amazing morning, the run went really well, made 2 mins under the time I was aiming for. I had told myself under 30 mins was what I needed to do, under 29 will be happier, under 28 minutes and I get a double treat this week. (Pancakes after the run, Teriyaki for dinner).

In the end my time (as you can see above) was dead on 28 mins! Hello double treat! I had the best time as well during the run. I tried to not get distracted to much. At one point since the runway was still open, as I was running along, 6 aircraft came in for a formation landing. All lined up in a Line Abreast Formation, they flew over me, a fitting tribute if I ever do say. Then as they passed me and went behind me they broke their formation perfectly for a peal off and break for landing. Damn them!!

It was a fantastic finish as well, finishing the race alongside a parked Air Austral 777-200LR and trying NOT to get that distracted was tough, but a fantastic reward!! After the race I scrambled back to the hotel for a shower and breakfast and check out before heading back over to where I was, and then I could catch up with some fellow Avgeeks for a morning of being a local Avgeek. Fantastic morning and saw my first ever 747-8 takeoff (Cargolux 747-8F and i have a PERFECT) photo to!

After having to run off from Paine I hit the road, in hunt of my truck. I have to return the rental on Friday. Which means I need to get my butt in gear to get sorted. So I drove a lot today, back and forth between lots of different dealerships, even all the way to the middle of no where, thinking they would have lots of different new trucks but they were all used.

But now I have a very good idea on what I want, hell I may even have the truck picked out as well. Its been an eventful day. Totally beat and for the first time in 2.5 years i missed lunch, but only cause I was so busy!! Pretty sure the Teriyaki makes up for that loss though. More on Toshi’s maybe next time!

Lots more photos added:

Expat Life

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On the 1st December 2009, at 6am, I made my way to Tenneriffe feeling like crap after a lack of sleep but with a whole day ahead of me. That day would be the start of an epic journey in my life. It was the day I had my first training session, the first day I had ever set foot in a gym in an effort to work towards a goal (well 4 goals really).

That day forever changed my life. Because two years later I am still at the gym pretty much every morning. I have not intentionally skipped a session in 2 years (breaks and trips not included) and now after 2 years I actually enjoy it!

I had set myself some goals and I smashed through them, so set myself some other goals, and smashed through them as well now! I have managed to complete each and every goal that I have set my mind to. I now feel that I can do anything at all in my life.

In the last two years I have done so many things I never thought i would be able to. When I started this I couldn’t ride a bike, I couldn’t run, I couldn’t walk long distances. Look at me now, I can run 5km in the morning and come out of it feeling happy as larry. I can ride a bike for 10km and all I feel is a little bit tired, but have loved it. I have climbed mountains, trekked across the PNG wilderness, I have travelled the world while doing some amazing things.

I have run around Central Park, Run along the Thames, Taken a run along the river in Kyoto all while watching the Sun Rise. I have done things I never thought I would ever be able to and all thanks to a decision I made just two years ago.

I really want today to be the start of another new journey and new challenge but that will just have to wait till I release anything about that yet, but guaranteed when the time comes, I will be letting you all know. But I have made a big change. With what is now a New Mal, comes a new Bigmal.net As you can see the site has had a bit of a change with a whole new look and hopefully I can keep blogging a bit more constantly. I will be trying to post more with a whole range of topics covering all my usuals! and all the stuff that keeps me going every day.

Before I get into the thank yous I do wanna just let you all know that i still have my bigmal365 going at the moment and for this week (since I am 3 days behind in photos anyway) I will be posting photos of my transformation over the last 2 years including some epic moments.

Now a lot of people have asked me over the last 12 months or so to get rid of the “big mal” name. To be honest I have answered the same thing each and every time. No. But I am going to clarify. Big Mal is not a description of who I am or what I was. It was a name that just was me. It described my personality more than anything. I may have been large but i was also larger than life. That still describes the way I try to be now as well. So the name stays because it as much a part of me now, than it ever was.

Over the last 2 years I have had a wealth of support but I have a few big names to thank first. First and foremost I must thank Andrew Burnes. Without his little kick in the pants, this change never would of happened so to Andrew, I have a massive debt to pass back but I can tell you that it was much appreciated and the fact you cared enough to help shows just how generous a person you really are.

To Andy my trainer and all the staff at Adventure 1000 who helped me during that process. I have a big thank you to you guys. You stuck by me all through it, encouraging me and keeping me going at each and every hurdle along the way. Your determination to keep me motivated was astounding and I wouldn’t of made it this far without you. Also a big thanks to Julie Gilbert, my nutritionist. Without your guidance each and every fortnight I would not of been able to achieve the fact that I have changed the entire way I look at food and at life.

To my family, I love each and every one of you and I thank you for the support you have given me each and every day and that you not only got behind me to help me change, but have changed your ways a little bit as well (yes mum i have seen the tiny little changes you have made but its obviously not as big as it could be).

To my friends. The close friends who have stood by me each and every step of the way, through the ups and downs, dealing with my mood swings and my propensity to just go all wierd at random times during the process thank you. Some big shout outs go to Alisha, Trenton, Bianca, Adrian, Shannan, Cat & so many more. You have been there by my side the whole way through, some of you have been there to help out and keep me on track. Trenton was always there in the mornings to walk with me (and Bianca on occasions) or hit the gym, Adrian running the 10k at the Gold Coast for the hell of it to run it with me, Alisha & Shannan always there with a kind word and with a propensity to help me shop and get new clothes during all the changes.

Last but not least I wanna thank all of those who have offered me lots of well wishing and support after ACA went to air. My life changed so much over the last 2 years it was so good to be able to pass on and hopefully return the favour of people putting that message out there in life. I wish that those who are trying to do something similar to me the best of luck and that if you can get the support you need, you can do anything! Just look at what i did!

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So when i started to learn to ride my bike I remember I set a goal with my trainer Andy. I had said that the ultimate outcome of me learning to ride was doing a 20km ride along the brisbane river. Obviously it wont be as easy now that the floating walk way is gone, but to be honest I still need to complete this.

I cant believe I have left it till now to remember this. I am going to do it to. I will not let a goal slip by undone. Damn sure I wanna get it done by the end of the year to. So with that in mind i dont care if I havent trained or anything like that, I am just gonna do it! the Weekend before christmas (since that way I am getting my body nice and ready for what is sure to be an onslaught of goodies!) I am going to hit the riverside bike paths and just keep going!! Not sure how I am gonna do this but to be honest I don’t care.

Anyone will to join me on my ride of what I am sure will end up being painful is welcome to join me (looking at the sunday prior to christmas) as the company would be good. Starting somewhere around the city (probably wherever I can find a park early in the morning with easy access to the bike paths) and from there just setting off and seeing where the paths take me till I have done 20km (hopefully around an hour or so) and then probably go find somewhere to curl up into a ball and cry as my ass would probably need a bit of a break.

Nah to be serious I really don’t want to let a goal like this slip past without me even trying this. So as I will never give up trying, I will do this!!!

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Well i alluded to this in my last post but the last 6 weeks or so I have been learning to ride a bike. But the whole aim was to learn to fully ride a bike. Part of that process means if I am going to learn I am going to need something to learn on, I can’t keep relying on someone else to provide me with a bike to practice on or do my lessons. So with this in mind I did a bit of research, took lots of advice from professionals and from friends and I pulled the plug.

I bought a bike!!! Yep thats right a 2 wheeled, human powered mode of transportation. Now this may not sound as like exciting news but considering this is my first EVER bike and im almost 30 years old, its a big deal to me. Unlike most people I never had a bike as a child. I was never taught to ride as a child and never given a bike by my parents, so I never learnt to appreciate what its like to have that ability to get places quickly and easily unless i was walking.

But I am really excited at the process of learning to ride. The more I learn the more confident I get and the better I feel. I dunno if I am gonna be hitting mountain trails or anything yet, but at the moment my little goal is 2 things:
1. Do a River Ride around the city (i think its like 40km or so)
2. Ride a Bike overseas while on my holiday
It sounds kinda silly but the most daunting part of this is making sure I am confident enough to not want to die when I get on the bike. At the moment I have a habit of focusing on things while I am riding, like this morning, was trying to thread a bit of a path between a rubbish bin and a pole. So i was doing as instructed, focus on where I want to go, don’t focus on what I want to avoid. So i was looking at the gap, looked at the bin, looked at the gap, looked at the bin, o that bins getting awfully close, clang! Handle bars hit the bin lid. WOOPS!

But enough about me learning to ride, what about the bike. Well I followed some advice from my trainer and other people and looked into a mountain bike. But not a full on moutain bike. Matt & the boys at Avanti Plus Fortitude Valley really looked after me. They really knew what to recommend to me for someone who is looking for a decent first bike. They gave me two options.
Avanti Agressor 1
Avanti Agressor 2
Both are Hardtail Mountain bikes. So that just means they only have Front Shocks rather than both Front and Rear. So good for both general riding but then if I do decide to go off road (which eventually i do want to learn and try it out cause it seems like fun).

I looked at both bikes, not much different between the two, with the Agressor 2 having the better parts (both have the same frame). So thats what I went with. In the long run the bike will do me better. Rather than spending less now and then having to go for that bike in the future, it is more logical (damn my logical focused brain) to buy it now. So i bought the bike and now I just need to get some roof racks for the car, cause my car is a bit small and the bike takes up 2/3 of the car when in it. So once I have that I will be all kitted out for the moment (will eventually need to get some lights for it if i ride in the dark etc but for the moment, i don’t really need them as I wont be riding in the dark).

So if anyone wants to go for a nice easy ride sometime, let me know, im still learning remember!