Saturday 24 September 2011

Week 1 Bloggers challenge

Thought I would mix things up a bit and do a BLOG challenge from - http://courage2start.blogspot.com/

1. Describe yourself in 25 words or less. You can get straight to the point - or bring your creativity into play. 
Fun, loving, fun loving, go, go, go; confident, genuine

2. What brings you to 12wbt? Getting fitter? Losing weight? (Gaining weight??) Are you first timer, a repeat offender?? 
I had lost 20 kg doing Weight Watchers, and was slowly continuing on the weight loss and health journey. Michelle Bridges was stalking me from the sidelines of Facebook and on a big billboard on Nepean Highway and my friend Annie had great success. I thought the 12wbt might help fine tune things!


3. Why do you blog?? 
I originally started my blog to share bits and pieces, family, day to day and crafty for my friends and family to keep up to date. Then Facebook took hold and my blog was seriously neglected. Now I came back to revive it, using the 12wbt to put some energy back into my blog.

4. Who is your biggest inspiration in life and why (doesn't have to be weight loss)
Gee this is a hard one....Various aspect of certain people inspire me, but there is not 1 single person that singlehandedly influence me! 

5. What things in life bring you the most joy?
My family..Makes the world go around. 

6.What do you think your greatest challenge is going to be this round?
Working out 6 days a week!

7. What are you most excited about 12wbt? 

Learning more about food, and fine tuning my body and mind



8. And what scares the pants off you?
Failure....

9. Tell me - right now - today - how do you feel about exercise in no more than 10 words
Disappointed I can't get out and do more (hello heel spur)!

10. Complete this sentence - in 12 weeks time - on the last day of 12wbt I am going to be feeling Indestructible!!


Okay gotta go get ready for kickboxing :)

Saturday 17 September 2011

So far, so good

well here i am and it is Day 6 of the 12wbt....

I have stuck to the 1200 cals each day, including a glass of wine last night. I nearly had a second, but I actually processed it in my head, no I actually didn't feel like it, I am quite full, I will feel crap tomorrow if I have another etc. So alas I didn't have it. That is a downfall, I often drink for the sake of it being the weekend. I better have a glass of wine, it is Saturday..how ridiculous!

The food has been mostly nice. I have pretty much done my own thing for breakfast (toast or cereal)  and lunch (taking inspiration from the 12wbt recipes)..dinners I have done exactly to the recipe. A lot of the stuff has lots of health fresh herbs, which my kids are not into. So I have tried to alter them to suit. Which is a little bit of a pain because I hate making separate meals. It has just meant I need to think and plan ahead a bit, so not too much of a drama!

I have also exercised every day so far, yea go me! I need to try to get something happening today. Today is typically SSS (super Saturday). which means burning 1000 calories. I am afraid I will not be doing this in a hurry. Call me lazy, but I want this to be sustainable and I am not going to bust my balls spending 2 hours working out. I am at home with both kids, and trying to do 1000 cals to a DVD is not gunna happen. I want to turn the volume down on Mish by the end of 1 DVD, LOL! No offence Michelle Bridges!  My heel is still sore, but I think on the mend (I have a heel spur and plantar fasciitis if I haven't mentioned it, and to be honest it is quiet debilitating :(. I just picked up my orthotics on Thursday and currently wearing them in. I am still losing weight doing what I am doing, so I am more about doing exercise than being obsessed with the amount of calories!

I did my fitness test, killing my foot and I am pretty sure having an asthma attack in the process (I had asthma as a teenager) but I was being stubborn and wanted a number for the 1 km time trial. As it turned out I was intermediate in 3 categories and advanced in 2. The wall sit is a bloody killer, pity it isn't a plank instead...I can do 2 min and 5 seconds. I also did a shit load of (lady) push ups, which my kickboxing trainer tells me are a waste of time. So I attempted man push ups, and crikey I am hopeless, I struggled and managed 4. So I am just going to try them now!

Ok I need to go clean up this feral house. Get some washing out, which is a pain because the puppy is having a blast pulling it off (we have a 9 month old Border Collie).  I should mention a bit about my family, because everyone checks in  here for different reasons I guess. Hubby is a builder and currently working in the city (and hating it) he is also an ironman and training for a half ironman in Shepparton in November and Melbourne Ironman March next year. Harry is 7, in Grade 1 and enjoys TaeKwonDo...Emmy just turned 5 and also commenced TKD. But also loves Ballet, and is keen to do gymnastics. She will start prep next year..Yipee. I am a Paediatric nurse currently working at a local Community Health Service doing asthma education to families. I am also back doing some bank shifts at the hospital. I love TV, True Blood, Project Runway, X Factor, Housewives of NYC all the usual crap!
I enjoy reading, but never get much time to do it. And I recently found Sudoko a good challenge (only the easy ones though). I still love making cards for people and wish I had more time to scarpbook :(
Ok I must go, enjoy your weekend peeps

xx

Tuesday 13 September 2011

12wbt kick off!

Ok so it is 10 pm and I am cooking tomorrow nights lasagne. We have the school concert at 6.30, and I finish work at 5.30 and have 2 kids to pick up at seperate locations.

So blogging is the last thing on my mind, but I though I better check in and say yee haa, the body transformation has started. Today was Day 2....and although I said I would only exercise 4 days a week, I decided that what the hell, I will whack in some both mornings. My concern has been that I would get just as disappointed in myself with calories and exercise as i did for eating too much. So if I don't exercise, or if I do and don't burn 500 calories. Now I have decided, that I am happy burning ANYTHING! I am still battling a sore foot, although I think it has improved. So this morning I burnt nearly 300 on the treadmill (which was a slower walk because my foot hurt when I turned up the pace or the incline) and yesterday I did most of the Michelle Bridges Tone DVD, also not a huge calorie expenditure because I didn't really have much room in the lounge and I poorly planned time with getting to work, so had to cut it short, also had to do the low impact as the jumps hurt,  :( I pick up my orthotic on thursday, so I hope that makes a real difference. 
I sat and planned out the menu Sunday and did a big shop. I sorted what days I would eat each meal, with work, and nights out, some meals fitted in better on different days. I have also stuck with Special K advantage  for breakfast  because A/. I need something I don't have to think about when going to work, and B/. I just don't see a shake as a meal, lol. Still healthy and still within the calories, so all good. I did take a picture of tonights dinner, so will share that at some point. 
Ok time for bed... soon anyway!


Saturday 10 September 2011

Pre Season

I remembered why I am so crap at blogging, and that is because I finally think to do it just when I am ready for bed.
So I thought I would give a quick summary of the Michelle Bridges 12wbt pre season tasks. The idea of these tasks is to have you all ready for the journey ahead, like a Girl Guide the motto was 'be prepared'.

1/. Introduce Yourself - this was about jumping on the forums and introducing yourself...so most of you should know me from this blog alone. I am 42 in October, a mother, wife and nurse. I live in Melbourne, Australia. I have lost over 20 kgs in the last 10 months. I love reading, scrapbooking and hanging with my family and friends. More recently I developed a love of kickboxing and Zumba.

2/. Get Real - this is identifying your excuses in life..
Internal :
will do it tomorrow
doing ok at losing weight, so don't need to be strict
ate that, blown it, so doesn't matter if I eat the rest
too tired
too sore

External (control over)
too busy
gym too expensive

External (no control over)
sick kids / me sick
husband home from work late
kids having meltdowns when I want to go out

with each of these came thinking up solutions. Mine consist of not waiting for tomorrow, ensuring KB or Zumba at least 4 times a week, and walking the dog..focusing on different areas of the body when sore. Doing treadmill at home, pre warning the kids. Don't loosen the reigns!

3/. Set Your Goals : setting goals is about having measurable, achievable and realistic aims over the program, but also beyond. So they are 1 month, 3 month, 6 month and 12 month. My goals are to about losing weight, toning up and I am achieving this by following 12wbt and being consistent. (In my actual list they are more specific).

4/.  Gear Up - this is about our exercise programs. This will involve 6 days a week of activity as follow
3 days of fitness, 2 days of toning, 1 day of light fitness, core and stretch (i.e yoga)


5/. Say it Out Load - simple as yelling it from the rooftops and making a commitment. Telling everyone you know you are doing the program, in order to be accountable and of course have support. My commitment was : I commit to this program to be the best person I can be whilst maintaining a realistic life....I will be healthier and fitter as I lose 10 kilos (I am actually less already, so not sure if I need to readjust that number, ah well we will see what happens) and tone my body.

6/. Kitchen Makeover _ yep that's right, throw all of the shit out of the house. There isn't too much for me because i have been mostly healthy for 10 months. Hubby won't give up chocolate, but lucky I am not too fussed by that.

7/. Organize and Diarise  - plan out your diary so you know when you are training, shopping days etc. Highlight outings that might be 'red flags' for eating. Such as dinners / weddings etc.

8/. Measure Up - eek the scary bit. Do measurements and take a pic in bra and jox! I wished I did this in October last year (oh the visual I have in my head, blah). Never mind. Onwards!

Much of these tasks are outlined in Mish's book Crunchtime. Which is a really great reference with its own 12 week program, along with the Crunchtime Cookbook.

These are all very confronting, and make the challenge very real. Looking forward mostly to learning about what calories mean, and about what actual healthy food is. Mind be fun to get into my head too.

Gosh I should go to bed...I am hoping for an early morning call into work.

Cheers

Tuesday 6 September 2011

Fat chick in a slim body!

Well firstly I have to say I ALWAYS think of the best blog updates when I am driving or in bed about to go to sleep.! Alas, you will just have to put up with what comes to mind now as I am sitting in front of the computer. So here I am sitting on my slimmer butt on the couch after knocking off 600 calories at kickboxing. I am going to KB more now, because I currently can't go to Zumba....waaaaaaaaaaaaah! I have a bloody heel spur (and plantar fasciitis), and it friggin hurts like crazy :(    Luckily I love KB and can alter the exercise and still get a good work out.

So how about this losing weight. I guess the thing about losing weight is how you feel and look. And I have found that I am having trouble coming to terms with this. Mostly I look in the mirror and like what I see. But I have trouble when I reach for a size 12 top and accepting that when I actually try it on that YES it does actually fit, oh and looks ok :) Or some of my tops, that are size 16, up until last week I still had in my wardrobe, because it will still look ok. NO it does NOT! When I bought a gorgeous dress recently I doubted that it looked nice, and questioned myself whether I was in fact still a fat chick trying to squeeze into a slim dress. Alas it looked fucking amazing, lol.

The other thing that is hard is the constant compliments, nearly every day, several times a day in fact. Even now, from the same people. Now don't get me wrong, I love it, it is very motivating to maintain a healthier lifestyle. But the old me creeps in and wonders are they just saying it. So I am trying to suck it up and say thank you and let it spur me on.

This brings me to the next step in my life. I have decided to do the Michelle Bridges 12 week body transformation.  I contemplated her books I think before I started WW, but opted instead for the Tiffany Hall book (which admittedly didn't do much for me). I would see the ads for the 12wbt on the side of FB all the time, and in magazines. It sounded interesting. When my buddy joined I liked the page on FB, and this was great to see all of the buzz. Even though I know I am losing weight, and it still seems to be coming off,  I thought this would consolidate my knowledge and add a new perspective on food. I am also keen to shape my body more. A big thing will be the mind lessons. Working through why I overeat, and why I can't be bothered exercising. This program is very hard core...and I don't know that I will be super dedicated. I know I won't burn the ideal 500 calories 5 days a week, and 1000 1 day a week. I guess I am lucky because I really only want to lose 10 kilos, so I don't feel like I have to be mega hard core. I don't think I will ever rid nachos, wine and chips from my life, but at least I will be doing it much less, and even make better choices at times.  But I will exercise more than I am now, and my dietary intake will be less, and 'cleaner'. So this can only result in positive outcomes.

Ok we are currently at the end of 'pre-season' which involved 8 tasks in order to be ready for the coming slog! Hopefully I can get back in the next few days and update my 8 tasks before kick off on Monday.

Cheers peeps...and thanks for joining me :)