Wednesday 27th July 2011, (Day 65, Week 10)

Well it’s that time of the week again and I weighed in at 56.9kg. I’m very happy to see that, bit disappointed about how I put the weight on with a myriad of cocktails and wedges, but I’m happy to have kept some of the weight. So technically (well what I have to give to Michelle) I’ve gone up 700gm this week.

I’m keeping in mind that I weighed in on Saturday at 57.7kg (1.5kg heavier thanks to munch fest) so between Saturday and this morning I’ve lost 800gm…. In just 3 days…. More more food to come….

I have a “red flag” this week being cup day, but I’m going to do what I did for the Chief Ministers Cup and just be smart about it. Train in the morning, eat a great meal before I leave, pack healthy snacks but still enjoy my day without worrying about everything I’m drinking on top of my meals. Kinda risky being so close to the program finish line… but it’s my favourite day of the year, the last public holiday of the year and also the last social event in Darwin before wet season starts, so I’m enjoying it with no remorse….. :D

Food for thought…… what do you do to motivate yourself to do something? Self talk? Bribery? Promise of a reward when the task is done?.... do you find even after doing something for a while you still need to do these things to keep doing the task???

Motivation gets you started – Habit keeps you going

Monday 25th July 2011 (Day 64, Week 10)

Well I missed last weeks update…. Busy busy busy so here goes.

Wednesday weigh in found that I had dropped to 56.2kg…. which astounded me as I’ve been eating everything healthy I can get my hands on and the Tuesday before weigh in ate no carbs and replaced that with protein, so by bed time I felt so full I felt ill…. So back to the ole drawing board….

I also had my fitness test which found me 21sec faster on my 1km time trial, I was able to do 40 push ups off my toes in 1 minute, able to hold my wall sit 55sec longer and being 1cm more flexible. Not bad. I feel now I am hitting a plateau. I don’t seem to have changed much size wise over the last couple of weeks and I don’t think my muscle definition has changed at all either so I’m getting rather nervous as I think my photos in week 12 will be the same as my halfway ones and that would be disappointing considering the work I’ve put in.

On Friday I had a session at the casino with my brothers and although I started like an angel, by late night we were hitting the cocktails and I devoured a massive amount of wedges with all the trimmings, which was HEAVEN !!! It was so nice to just eat and when I got home I was starving and happily cooked up some sweet potato chips and some spinach and ricotta pastries and they were HEAVEN as well. It was nice to feel full instead of satisfied…. Needless to say internally unhappy for the rest of the weekend…. It was fantastic and delicious at the time, but the body did not like it at all…. So have to try and keep that in mind for future “sessions”…. I wouldn’t change it for the world though, great time with my brothers….

It has been mentally difficult to go back into my nutritional food however, as it felt fantastic to just eat without worrying about the content, portion etc etc etc….. Last night I had a bit over my allotted food and did feel a little bad as it was just a “give in” to a craving and it’s the first time I’ve done it in the 10 weeks of the program so it played on my mind a bit, so back on track today. A good thing (well in a way) was that I weighed myself Saturday morning after the session and I had gained about 1.5kg… not a healthy way to gain the weight back, but it was nice to see and I went straight to the gym and it was fantastic training and feeling absolutely full and with excess fuel to burn. Even hungover I did better than other sessions I’ve had. I’ll be interested to see if I maintain a bit of that weight gain this week for weigh in. My inner control keeps telling me to “try and make up for it” either through watching food closer (is it possible?) or train more, but I really want to try and keep that weight on.

I’ve decided to do the next round of 12wbt that starts mid August. I’m happy with the body, but mentally I think I’ll be happy to just go back to my old binge “all you can eat” ways so I think I need a bit more “mental training” from Mish. Especially after this weekend…. Certainly an eye opener…. I can recognise when it’s a craving etc, but for some reason this pass weekend I didn’t care enough to ignore it….

Next round though I’m going to start with not counting every single thing I’m consuming and just eat healthy and train and see what happens. If the weight creeps on too much I can always go back to the control I have now and lose it again. I think I need to let go of the control a little or instead of this being my new lifestyle, and the choices automatic, it will end up a phase I go through and I’ll keep on going up and down substantial weights as I have previously. I know what I need to eat so I’m just going to do it without the counting. I’ll still keep a diary of food as it helps, but not as seriously as I am at the moment.

Anyway.. that’s about all for now…

Food for thought…. What is a habit that you currently have that is either of poor health or simply annoys you ? Have you ever tried to change it ? Are you in denial you have a habit ??? I was told once that it takes 21 days to change/stop a habit……

Wednesday 13th July 2011 (Week 8, Day 52, Milestone Week)

Well it’s that time again… geez it comes around quickly. Not only is it weigh in day again, but it’s measurement day and on Saturday I’ll be redoing my fitness test (if not sooner)..

Unfortunately I lost another 800gm, which is probably attributed to the stomach bug I’ve had for the last 2 days. Due to this I’ve also missed 2 days of training which I’m sad about and hope it doesn’t throw me into a spin and I get lazy…. I felt well enough all day to train, but so many crummy excuses kept trying to bubble up like “I’m tired, I need a rest, I don’t want to get sick again….etc etc”….. Just excuses…. Not going to reach goals sitting on the couch watching Judge Judy !!! During training I suffered.... I didn't want to be there and had an emotional moment when I got home because it's "all too hard"..... I feel better now after dinner.... but fingers crossed tomorrow I can be back to my normal "let's train" self......

Anyway…. So that loss takes me down to a measly 56.9kg…. I’m classed as underweight and I was called the word “scrawny” 3 times over the weekend and was asked “are you eating” and “but you’re not planning on losing more are you?” by a number of my friends and blog followers….. all with the best intentions I absolutely understand as I know my friends want the best for me….

I am not trying to lose anymore weight !!! PROMISE !!!!…. In fact I’m trying to gain back 2-3kg to take me back up to my “healthy weight range”… The program is just well designed for weight loss… nutshell…. Follow it and lose weight…. So the plan this week is to up food again… I know, I know, I could easily hit some disgusting fast food outlet and binge on high fat unhealthy food and be back at 60kg in a week….. but I want to do it in a healthy way…. I want to balance my food and keep it as nutritionally dense as possible…. Stay with me here… this is a journey to health as well as sculpting my “scrawny” body…. Lol

So today we was all  about upping the protein portion of the main meals (again), which for breakfast I missed as it was already a large breakfast of egg, ham, tomatoe, toast and cottage cheese….. so lunch I added a good ole egg to my asparagus and sweet potatoe soup…. Nom nom nom… I mixed some protein powder into my morning yoghurt and used that as a yummy dip for some pineapple and strawberries….. afternoon snack ended up being the same as this mornings as it was yummy and dinner was panfried fish with cherry tomatoes and spinach….adding on my calories for my supplements of glutamine and antioxidant….. I’ve hit about …….drum roll……………1324cal….. :( - still way under where I need to be…. AND (as you can plainly see) I’VE EATEN ALL FREAKING DAY !!!!

Over it…. I’ve been told to make an omelette for an after dinner snack by an awesome friend to help with my protein intake as well as using up the calories….. but I’m seriously full…. Stick a fork in me I’m done…. To be honest I keep upping the calories anyway and I still lose weight…. Where do I go to ??? 1500 ?? 2000 ?? I feel some more research coming on…

Anyway, while I mull over what else I’m going to eat today lets do a measurement check !!!

Since Week 4 only I’ve lost;

3cm off my chest

4cm off my waist

4cm off my hips

And 2.5cm off each thigh

 And drum roll again.............. I lost 4% off my body fat percentage bringing me to 20.6%... excellent !!!

In just 4 weeks !!!!!

Yay for me !!! and this to me is comfortable for my height…. A little slim…. But I feel confident and feel the healthiest as I’ve ever been in my life !!!

Chief Ministers Cup Saturday 9th July 2011

Now for all you peeps thinking this is pretty awesome…. I’ll let you in on a secret…. It’s hard work…. really hard....... I mean I had a breakdown today hard....lol...... Following is my workout for Saturday…. Yes, I will be doing this, but hey you can always give it a go too… You’ll be surprised just how far your body will go with a little push….

5 x Rounds (try to better your time each round) – guys you should be able to go a bit heavier on the weights of course……

Let me know how you go :D

30x Walking Lunges (holding 5kg dumbbells overhead)

30x Step Ups (bench height step, holding 5kg dumbbells, 30L then 30R, no rest in between)

30x Dumbbell Squat Press (5kg Dumbbells)

30x Push Ups with a Clap (here we go again with the claps)

30x Bent Over Row with Barbell (10kg)

30x Rollling Plank (Plank position pushing up onto R hand then L then lowering one by one down into plank, all 4 steps (up, up, down, down) = 1 rep)

30x Burpees

Food for thought – When have you ever truly truly challenged yourself ?? Either physically or mentally ???  or maybe even socially ?? How did you feel ? Did you accomplish the challenge ? How did you feel after the accomplishment ? Did you not get to where you wanted to be ? Did you give up or give it another go ???

Thursday 7th July 2011 (Week 7)

Lost another 1.2kg this week... I upped my calorie intake and cut my morning training out so now I'm upping the food again.. I thought it would be easy to maintain weight, but now I'm not so sure. At least that's a testimony to how good this program is ! Even trying to gain or maintain weight, it's still falling off.

Which is probably why Mish let rip in the live video last night. A lot of people are gaining etc and then have excuses like it's raining, I lost 2 days because of blah blah etc etc... They are EXCUSES !!! If you are still gaining weight (but exercising - which seems the common complaint, "I'm doing the work but getting no results") then the diet really needs to be looked at ! Are you including drinks ??? They can slip through, but can be quite high on the calorie/sugar etc table..... Hmm drink, will be back, time for some green tea..... Where was I ??? Ahhh yes..... honesty !!! If you cannot be honest with yourself when it comes to what is going in your mouth then seriously ... ?? Anyone out there in blogger world having a diet/nutrition problem etc..... as Mish will put to us... WRITE IT IN A DIARY !! All of it, your drinks, food, snacks, fruits, lollies, whatever.... geez I even have a column for my supplements... If you do not know what you are eating, how will you know where you went wrong or what could be changed ??? Well that's my advice/rant whatever.... I'll jump off the soap box.... Side note... for the peeps truly doing ALL their exercise (at 100% intensity) and eating 100% nutritionally balanced and controlled food and not losing weight.... I take it all back....

Moving along....... This week has been uneventful to be honest besides the weight loss as I did not expect it. Training is still muscle specific and low cardio. I've added in some morning training and sometimes after dinner I like to walk on the treadmill. So I definitely need to up the food to cover the extra exercise. I've entered into Fernwood's Step Challenge so I'm wandering around with a bright pink pedometer for the next 6 weeks... I'm not in the comp to win anything as I don't do classes or cardio which is where the high step rates come in (avg 16,000 steps for a step class), but I'm doing over 10,000 per day so I'm rather happy with that considering I have a sedentary job.

Red flag for this week is the VIP tix I have for Chief Ministers Cup, so plan is to train hard and long in the morning, stick to light drinks like Champers and Soda Water and take some healthy snacks.... This is a day for me to enjoy so I'm not going all funny and only having a certain amount of drinks etc. I'm going to indulge and have fun... If I can find a dress that fits... One down side of losing nearly 7kg in 7 weeks is that not one, NOT EVEN ONE, of my dresses fit me anymore.... even the ones that I did not even get a chance to wear.... at all.... so it's a mad panic to find an outfit for the day..... My Cup Day dress is already in at the tailors being altered !!!.....

Anyway this was meant to be a quick weight update and a soap box for people to be HONEST with themselves.... When you start something make a promise to yourself (eg I promise to follow this program 100%), write it down if you have to, and remember that promise.... would you break a promise to family or friends ??? Then surely you deserve the same treatment to not break a promise to yourself.....

Food for thought !!

When have YOU not been honest with yourself ??? What was it about ?? Why ?? .....

I'll share first.... On another weight program I use to fiddle my figures so on paper I looked like I really was doing it 100%.... but really I was just letting myself down.... even with water !!!!... I would tick the box and say yep I've had all my water for the day knowing full well I had not.... Why ?? Because it was easier to lie to myself than to disappoint myself by reading I was not keeping up my promise to me......

Your turn XXX