Weigh-in Blues

Yesterday was Weigh In Wednesday. After last week, I had been checking my weight to see if the loss was real - I went up to 77.6kg on some days, so I wasn't hopeful that I would achieve my previous week's weigh-in of 75.8kg, let alone lose.

And the scales verdict? 75.8kg. Which is good - I hadn't put any one. But bad - because I haven't lost any, despite working super hard and eating super good. It's a bit freaking depressing, if I'm being totally honest.

But not as depressing as getting on the scales this morning and seeing 77.6kg staring back at me. Seriously, I know I need to do a poo, but nearly 2kg???? Really?!

I think (and I'm being quite serious here) that my scales are bupkis. Shite. Crappy. I might have to fork out some more for some new ones.

You know what I'm going to do? I'm not giving up - although I do admit to having a little "woe is me" cry during my workout this morning (it was humid and I was hot, sweaty, but the HRM was showing little increase in calories burnt). I'm going to keep on going on with my running, toning and following the nutrition plan. I know it will make a difference in the long run and I will see those scales move downward (even if they are new scales and even if it is slowly). I AM going to do this!

What brand scales do you use?

How do you pick yourself up after a gain or no loss?

Just Freakin' Do It!!

I have to be honest with you - this exercising thing 6 days a week is hard.

Every morning I wake up and start to think things through - I had a bad night's sleep, I have my period, I could do my workout after work, it looks like it might rain. Any excuse will do!

But the one fabulous thing I have got out of this 12WBT is Just. Freakin' (or substitute your F-word of choice). Do. It.

Don't think. Just do. Don't justify, excuse, plan, imagine, whinge or wait to feel "motivated". Just do it. Hey - those Nike people really know what they were on about!

Just got up this morning after a shocking night's sleep/awake and wanted a sleep-in. But instead I JFDI. Sweated buckets in this humidity, burnt 300 calories and got my legs, arms and abs all set for another round of DOMS.

Just Freakin' Do It. JFDI. Love it.

Dom, dom, dommmmmm....

Ow. Owww!!!

Source

My legs (and to a certain extent my arms and abs) hurt. A lot. I struggle to sit down on the toilet. It is painful to get back up to standing. I can't laugh or sneeze. I have a big, nasty case of the DOMS.

The what? Well, now I'm all 12WBT, I know what DOMS stands for - Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.

Oh yes - it is sore! And delayed - after my "total body toning" on Tuesday morning, I had jelly legs and arms for the morning. But Wednesday morning - OMFG!! I rolled my bod out of bed (and yes, those of you who are paying attention will also be yelling at the screen "and I supposed those wines had nothing to with it???"). Wine hurts your head, but that muscle soreness is from sumo squats and 50 billion lunges!

I'm still sore today. I'm walking like an old woman. But I got up and did my "sprints" around the oval anyway. 10 minute warm up and then 2 sets of 2min and 2 sets of 1 min sprints. Well, running faster than normal, which for today is sluglike!

I'm going to get a heart rate monitor
and see if I'm burning more than 200 cals!

My first 2 minutes was interrupted by a call from my husband enquiring why I didn't take the dog (who was at home in bed with him whimpering and carrying on) with me. All I could do was lug my ass out of bed and onto the oval - forget about the dog! I'll take him on my "long run" on Saturday. And tomorrow has a 15 minute jog, so I'll take him on that too.

Oh - apparently it hurts to cough too.

Ow.

Week 1 - Wednesday Weigh-in!

First up - a confession. I've been following the nutrition and exercise to the letter but came a little unstuck last night. We have some huge decisions to make, and we succumbed to the stress and bought wine. And I drank more than one glass. And this morning running seems a bit out of the question.

But. I will get back on that horse today. Back into the nutrition. I will try to run this afternoon after work, even though I usually do them in the morning. This was just a blip.

OK - so our first official weigh in day! I was a bit worried that I'd undone all my good work. But the scales said 75.8kg. Woot! So happy with that! And inspiration to keep putting one foot in front of the other :-)

Bring It On!!!

Yeah! Kirsten just wanted to join in on the baring-it-all fun!! She can be my own personal cheer squad.

So tomorrow is the first day of my first round of the 12 Week Body Transformation begins!! Bring it on, baby!

I've printed out my "nutrition plan" for the week. Been shopping - check out my super cleaned out, super healthy fridge:

Got my exercise plan - so excited to take my running to the next level and even excited about the all-over-body workouts! (yeah - I say that now - just wait for my whining and complaining about sore muscles!). All set for my tempo run tomorrow morning!

Pretty excited about this. Bring it on!!

Measuring up!

I thought I was putting it out there, keeping it real with my weight measurements on display on the left hand side (<------look, over there!). And you will note that I've lost nearly 3kg and am below 170lbs again, since I decided I'm going to do this Transformation thingy.

 But it seems I can be doing a little more...

So, in the interests of being totally honest, and keeping myself accountable, here are the Pre-season measurements we are required to do:

The scary one is the waist! To be healthy (ie: not at risk of heart disease and cancer and all that really bad stuff), women are supposed to be below 80cm. Got a bit to lose and totally kidding myself if I think I'm OK. I'm not OK.

And the other big thing we had to do was a "BEFORE" shot. Preferably in two-piece swimmers (ie: showing as much flesh as decently possible) and holding a current newspaper or magazine so you can't cheat and use a fat photo from 2 years ago as your starting point. OK. Here goes. Are you ready ('cause I'm not!):

The only good thing about that photo is that 12 weeks from now I'll be looking a whole lot better. 

OK. I'm going now before I die of embarrassment.

The Only Way is Up!

Alrighty! Only a FIVE days to go until the start of the 12 Week Body Transformation!! I'm getting pretty pumped and have already made quite a few changes to my lifestyle.

With hubby's support, we are going alcohol free (eeek!) until Christmas. We just don't seem to be able to "just have one glass". Ever. And this is frequently nearly every night of the week. That's like a billion extra calories that this old bod just doesn't need. Plus we have a lot to do, and hangovers do not make work easy. So. Forget Oct-sober, we are just doin' it.

I've been running consistently and am up to Week 4, Day 2 of Ease into 10K. Now up to 4 x 8 minutes of running, with 1 minute walk breaks. Over the 5km mark for each workout too! Woot!

Been eating cleaner too - oats and berries for breakky, salads for lunch, protein/salad for dinner. Except for last night where we had the "Last Supper" of Cheaper Tuesday Dominoes. Confession: I really enjoyed it! But we do have the Thin and Crispy crust...does that make it a bit better?

OK. So this morning was the "Before" Fitness Test. I thought I could do under 8 minutes for a 1km run - I just had to follow my LuluLemon socks advice:

I was pretty sure my abs are crap, ditto push-ups, thought my legs may be OK for a squat test and I know my flexibility is pretty good in the stretch and reach. So here are my starting, benchmark figures:

I was very happy with the 7:13 for the 1km! Goal is now to get under 7 minutes and into the sixes! Anyway, that puts me into the "Intermediate" category for cardio-vascular fitness - woot!

24 lady push-ups. I did about 27, but the last couple were so pathetic I didn't count them. Surprisingly this also puts me in the "intermediate" category for upper-body strength and endurance. Who knew? My goal is to get to 30 in a minute.

No great surprise to know that my abdominal strength needs work. This is what I could barely do without lifting my feet off the ground:

I thought I'd do OK on the wall sit after all the running and I have good leg strength (compared to my arms or abs). But apparently 59 seconds or less is "Beginner" status and I managed a measly 42 seconds. I'm sure I can do better (and it sure felt like longer!).

I got 10cm past my toes in the sit and reach test - apparently this is +10cm (not -10cm, I've changed that now). I know from past (way past) fitness tests I can get to nearly 20cm! Anyway, this is more than +6cm past my toes, so I'm Advanced for flexibility, baby!

We get to revisit this every 4 weeks, so it will be interesting to see how things progress (well, for me, anyway).

The only way is up, baby!

For you and me now...

I Will Survive!

At first I was afraid, I was petrified...

What a week this has been. I'd love to be reporting in that I've done all my runs, ate cleanly etc. Sunday night I got all my running gear out ready for Monday morning - I had work on every day this week, so I was going to have to get up early and be organised!

But life has a way of bringing the best of intentions undone. I woke on Sunday night with stomach pains and by morning felt like a truck had run me over. It was when my head was in the toilet bowl that I thought to myself "perhaps no running today?"

It was a very unpleasant day, and I bailed out of work; I ditched the after-work tutoring. There was a moment there when I felt if not death, but perhaps a light coma would be nice! Every cell in my body ached and my head felt like it was going to explode. My guts re-arranged themselves with alarming regularity. It was awful.

On the "plus" side, I ate really nothing - except for a bit of vegemite on toast. 

I awoke on Tuesday to feel much better. Fairly washed out, but that horrid feeling had left the building. I was able to go to work. I ate lightly and went to buy some pro-biotic yogurt in those little bottles.

It wasn't until this morning that I was able to feel like running. Well, I never feel like running, especially in the morning, and I always play that little game in my head where I think of reasons why I shouldn't go, but in the end put on my clothes and shoes and then the dog gets excited and there's really no turning back! It's just gotta be done.

Turns out lots of people get up early to run. At 7am my little pathway was a veritable highway of runners. All faster than me (I swear slugs run faster than me) but one nice lady from the local running club uttered words of encouragement to me - at least I think she did, because I can't hear really well with my earphones in. Maybe she was telling me I should run without earphones? I thanked her anyway.

So I keep plodding along. Not long until the kickoff of Round 4 of 12 Week Body Transformation. I've cleaned out the cupboards, diarised my workouts, my work, and things like our anniversary and Christmas. Next up we have fitness tests and measurements...stay tuned for the not pretty!

"...and I grew strong and learned how to get along

Oh not I, I will survive!"