Week 2 Weekly Surprise Challenge

This week the challenge is to create an Inspiration Board. Yee-hah, this is right up my scrapbooking alley, EXCEPT for that little thing called an exam. I've done the right thing and not done the fun thing at the expense of my study which means I have missed the deadline for the competition. BUT I feel this is an important challenge and therefore I have completed it tonight. Here's my INSPIRATION... (click on the thumbnail to see a bigger version)

The first group of photos in the top left were taken at Christmas 2011, May 2012 and June 2012 when I was at my heaviest - around the 105 to 108kg (shocking!)

Over to the right are current photos of the "new me" in construction. They are all about me being more active and getting out there and JFDI.

On the left on the side are my ideal body parts - the two parts I am most not happy with and how i want to change them. I love those abs on the UK Olympian and I want a butt to be proud of, not ashamed of.

Finally, at the bottom, are some photos from our honeymoon. This short period was the only time I have ever been happy with the weight I was. I felt good, I looked good and I weighed only 61kg. I wasn't fit and I wasn't toned, but imagine how awesome I would have been had I been. That is where I want to get to - 61kg but also fit and toned. I'd better get onto those squats!!!

Weigh in Wednesday, Week 2

I can't believe I was looking forward to getting on the scales this morning! I didn't sleep very well with the excitement.

My alarm went off fo 5am so I Woke up, Weed, and Weighed-in. Yeehaa another 1.6kg gone forever! I am so loving this 12WBT program. Love the food, am coping with the exercise and I'm actually losing weight. OMG and it's not that hard. I love that I don't have to think about anything, i jsut have to DO it.

Smashed out another Wednesday workout and zoomed through getting ready anf off to work. When I got to work and checked my calendar... uh-oh, training today followed by the monthly birthday morning tea celebration. That means hot pastries and yummy Cheesecake Shop cakes for all. Alright, I can do this. I just have to make sure I psych myself up to it. I ate my brought-from-home morning tea just before the allotted time and took my bottle of water into the staff room with me.

I participated in the social chatter, but guess what -  I did it! Didn't eat a single thing. Not a sausage roll, nor party pie, nor samosa, nor jamacian chocolate cheesecake nor even caramel mud cake. And the hardest thing was that by the time I got to the room, the only seats were right beside the food. Yay me!!!

Gosh I feel good for doing that. Another notch in the belt for me. And speaking of notches in the belt - I need to get another hole punched in my belt for work as it's too loose now!

Sometimes it's the Little Things

It's strange how sometimes one small thing can really give you a boost. Today while driving home, I noticed that my watch band was loose. Wow! I realised that it wasn't too long ago that I was thinking I'd have to find the extra links that I have stashed away somewhere to be able to make the band bigger. Looks like I might still need to find the stash, not to get more links out, but to put some away (forever). This little realisation made my day :-)

Hungry today

Day 2, Week 2 but today I am oh so hungry! Is this because I smashed out my workout this morning? Or because my body is starting to get over its shock at this lifestyle change? Or the fact that the menu yesterday and so far today has not included any meat? Roll on beef stir fry tonight for dinner.

I've been trying to combat the hunger by chewing sugar free cheering gum and by having a herbal tea. I hope I can get through the rest of the afternoon without snacking on naughty food!

Exercise-wise, I'm improving. I managed the mountain climbers on the back of the bench without stopping this morning and I'm getting so much better with my push ups too. Yesterday I upped my learn to run program from 30sec running intervals to 60sec running intervals. It was very difficult, but I managed. My butt does hurt quite a bit today - I notice it everytime I sit down :-(

And finally for today, I can't believe I'm so excited to be getting on the scales tomorrow for weigh in Wednesday. I have never been happy about getting on the scales. Here's hoping for an awesome result.

SSS on Day 6, Week 1

Another double dose for us this Saturday. We dragged ourselves out of bed to attend Ange's workout at the Capalaba Regional Park at a windy and chilly 6am. Today she introduced us to the "Tabata" style of workout - ouch! This style has you repeating one exercise at high intensity for 20 seconds, then resting for 10 seconds, then back at high intesity for another 20 seconds, etc. You do 8 repetitions of the high intensity 20 second blocks. Each tabata set lasts 4 minutes, but oh how it hurts! First we did sprints, then sit ups, push ups, mountain climbers, lunges and finally sprints again. By the end of the hour we had certainly burnt some calories. My HRM told me I'd burnt 450 cals. Yippeee.

Later today (after a coffee (no cake) with a friend and some grocery shopping) we headed off to EliteHQ for our second SSS of the day. Were we crazy? Maybe.

The "warmup" today had me achieve a first - I jogged 400m without stopping or slowing to a walk! Wowee. Pity I still had to do another 200m run, then 400m run plus pushups, situps, and squats as part of the warmup. Phew! Again, if I'd been doing this at home, I would have given up after the warm up. This group PT training really does push you. The main workout had us split into two groups. My group did boxing first, and more running, and skipping, and pushups, and burpees. I partnered with Mady for the boxing - she's getting good! Plus I managed to skip 25 times in a row - had to do 100 all up. Two weeks ago I couldn't even do 5 skips in a row.

Then we swapped to the other group and we did knee raises while hanging from a bar, hang cleans with a 15kg bar, then we had to lift the bar above our heads (ouch) and then more burpees, and then repeated it.

When we FINALLY finished this (and most of us were totally buggered), we were lured outside for "suicide runs". We had to run back and forth for gradually shorter distances which ended up being a total of about 1km.

Once we'd done that we were finally allowed to stretch and finish up. I burnt 550 calories and worked many muscles I didn't know I had. Plus I jogged most of the 3km we had to do in the session.

By the time we got home, I was really starting to hurt so a nice warm epsom salts bath was in order, followed by crashing on the couch in front of the Paralympics on TV. Thank God we had leftovers for dinner and none of us had to cook. Even though it was a really tough SSS, I'm so proud of what I did today.
I'm even more proud that my family took part as well and my daughter is enjoying participating as an adult in our training sessions.

My First Weigh in Wednesday

I got up at 5am ready to workout but first weighed myself. OMG I've lost 2.9kg since I did my starting measurements a week and a half ago! Whoo hoo yay me! That is 4kg gone forever since I signed on for pre-season. That put me on a hugh high to smash out my 5am workout.
Roll on the next couple of weeks!

Day 1, Week 1, Round 3, 2012

Off we go!
I got myself up an extra half hour early this morning (5am) and got stuck into my first 12WBT workout - Cardio! I did interval training which was 1min 30 walk then 30 sec jog over 20 mins along the foreshore watching the sun begin to rise. Gee it was lovely down there at that time of the day.

Then I came home to complete the rest of the workout. I definitely have room for improvement in regards to technique as well as stamina. I worked off 368 calories and I am so proud of myself. Once I'd cooled down I felt quite good.
Next was my introduction to the food. Whoa - culture shock. I really struggle with eating much at breakfast and cope by having it just before I walk out the door. I struggled eating the toast today and the berries were a bit tart for my sweet tooth, but I will get used to it. I did enjoy it but didn't finish it, partly as I took too long to eat and needed to leave for work.
My alarm reminder reminded me to eat my morning snack and I coped with the beetroot and green stuff on my sandwich. I can do this! I'm looking forward to the fish stew tonight. It smelt so good!
I am soooo excited!
I took my belt in another notch today! That's four notches in three weeks! Yippee!