Trying AGAIN!

Hello all my lonely readers! You can take my silence here and on Facebook as confirmation that I have, indeed fallen off the 12WBT bandwagon (again).

My life has been very stressful of late, and although I know that following Mish's advice and guidelines will help me lose weight, look better, feel better and be healthier, it was just the straw that broke the camel's back and I couldn't deal with "being good" on top of everything else I've had to do.

And so I've been paying Mish $20 a week (again) for nothing. Well not nothing, because I've saved her recipes and running plan to my computer this time.

As you would expect, living a lifestyle of crap food and plenty of wine and little (no?) exercise does not lead to good things on the scales. I'm back to 78.9kg as of yesterday. Sigh. I'm on the yo-yo.

So, Weight Watchers, joined gyms, bootcamp, Couch to 5km, Run Fat Bitch Run, juicing, Weigh It Up, 12 Week Body Transformation - I've done them all - lost kilos, run further than I ever imagined, gained kilos...

However, a friend posted something earlier this week that piqued my interest - the Fast Diet (or 5:2 Intermittent Fasting) as "discovered" by Michael Mosely (love his science docos!) on the Horizon documentary Eat, Fast, Live Longer. Go watch it. In his case (and mine!) that all the standard advice is not working.

The idea is that you fast on two (non-consecutive) days a week - where you only eat 500 calories (or 600 for men) on those days. Eat what you want on the other days. Sounds doable! Fasting made easy! And with some good science to back it up. I went and bought the book.

So yesterday, I fasted for the first time. I was HUNGRY in between breakfast (cottage cheese and apple) and dinner (pork yakitori, pumpkin, feta and beans). But I didn't cave - because today I am enjoying my standard fare of raisin toast and chai latte. I really had to stop myself reaching out and just mindlessly eating. It took some thinking, but I did it! And I am so mentally relieved that I don't have to watch what I eat every day - just two days a week.

Just for fun, I took all my starting measurements yesterday - and today, 24 hours later, I am 1.5kg lighter. 1.5 KILOGRAMS! I expect much of it is water, but wow. On Thursday, I'll do it again and then go back to normal.

It is obviously early days and my long-term track record is not great. And as always, I'll blog about it - good, bad and ugly. Because I know I'm not alone here. Keep following me on my journey!

I'm baaaacckkk!!!!!

Oh hello fitness blog! I nearly forgot all about you, but I'm back!

Ready for some stats?

Weeks away: 4
Countries visited: 5
Total distance (Sydney to Beijing): 7271 nautical miles (8367 land miles, 13466 km)
Buffet breakfasts: 27
Four course dinners: around 12

Roast quail main

Chocolate and peanut slice

Visits to the gym: 2
Walks around the promenade deck: 2
Migraines: 2
Colds/flu: 2

Peking duck consumed: 1
Street food hoovered: lots

I can confirm that Peking duck fat is, in fact, divine...

OMG this pork was TO DIE FOR!

 

Dumplings - YES!

I will add that there was lots of food I DIDN'T eat!

Seafood lunch in Korea!

But I also walked. A lot. And climbed a few stairs:

So given I was pretty sick for a lot of the trip and ate a lot and didn't do a lot of exercise, I was thrilled to bits to come back home and get on the dreaded scales and see this:

70.2kg = 154.8 lbs

Alas, I fear that no exercise (brought on by yet another virus and another migraine - them's my excuses and I'm sticking to them) and wine and cheese and pizza and who the hell is Michelle Bridges? may have seen those numbers creep up a bit in the last two weeks.

But guess what? Today I went for a WALK! I know - it's impressive. And I even jogged a fair bit of it. The dog was fairly beside himself with excitement. So hopefully the colds, flu and migraines will leave me alone for a bit and I'll go shopping and get organised and get myself back on track before I undo all my hard work.

Stay tuned to see how I go!

Weekend wrap-up!!

OK! So it's Sunday night. And I just know that you are all sitting at home desperately waiting of news of my big Red Flag Day. So how did I get on???

Well, first up - let's remember Mish's words of wisdom: there is no "off the wagon" or "on the wagon". There's no "good" or "bad". This is not an either/or situation.

Bearing that in mind, I did pretty good!

My plan was to eat healthily and cut back on the wines consumed and I achieved that plan.

We did visit Maccy-Ds on the trip up for lunch, but I chose a Seared Chicken Wrap and water (363 calories). No fries!

At the party, I didn't pig out on chips, cheese and bickies, dip or bread in the afternoon. Instead, I placed myself away from all that food and just waited patiently until dinner. This is a biggie for me - I love myself some savoury nibbles! But I resisted temptation!

I had a chicken kebab and sausage and salad (not all clean and healthy, but not horrific either). I did not go back after dinner to the dessert table and consequently did not eat the banana cream pie or cheesecake. I think, given I did not prepare all my own food, I made pretty good food choices and flexed that willpower muscle with some mighty force.

My other downfall is usually alcohol, and I know I'm not alone here! I did reasonably well - drank gin and diet tonics, interspersed with mineral water and a few low-alcohol champagnes. This is over a period of between 3:30pm and 1am. I feel a bit dehydrated (and certainly tired) today, but this could have been a LOT worse. My calculations are a total of 470 calories on alcohol, which I'm pleasantly surprised about.

Blowing the budget on bubbles!

I estimate I ate/drank about 2000 calories - 800 over my daily limit. But I limited the damage and made some good choices, so all in all, I'm happy.

Back into it tonight with the Chicken Parmigiana we didn't have on Friday night (the week's all messed up, menu-wise) and then grocery shopping tomorrow as well as my tempo run.

How was your weekend?

Did you survive any social engagements without blowing your calorie budget?

What's your biggest weakness when eating out?

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!!

Another Wet Wednesday Weigh-In

Still raining. We had a brief respite on Monday, but I failed to take advantage of it as it was a "rest" day. I should do some strengthening/stretching. I should.

And onto the main event of today! Given the lack of exercise this week and the not so strict adherence to my Million Kilo Challenge diet, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a gain this week:

74.0 kg - 162.8 lbs

Doh. So close to the new magic "73". But pretty good considering the week I've had (or haven't had). 

So instead of giving up, I'm just going to keep on plodding along:

 

Wednesday Weigh-in Woo Hoo!

And here we are....

75.0kg - 165.3 pounds!

I'm so relieved and excited! I've been very good this week on my new Million Kilo challenge diet! I only fell off the wagon a bit when we travelled to Sydney, had wine with family and McDonalds gave me a Crispy Caesar Wrap, with small fries and real coke instead of the Seared Sweet Chilli Wrap, apple and water I thought I ordered. It was drive-through, so I only realised when we were already halfway down the highway. Ce la vie.

I have significantly cut back on my wine consumption (this is sooo tough for me), been doing my Ease into 5K workouts (missed Saturday due to Sydney trip):

and have been doing my Bondi Bum cross-training. This week's workout is:

All this hard work and super-dieting had better work!!! So, I'm pretty happy to have lost 1.6kg (that's 3.5 pounds!) since last week and 2.35kg since the New Year. Next step...74kg! Baby steps, baby!

Weekend wanders

Got up early (well, 7am is early for me!) yesterday (Saturday)...only to find the beach overrun with surf clubbies...some big carnival on and cars and people and boats everywhere! I forgot to take a pic, but sucked it up and went for my run/walk anyway.

I had tight calves, but felt OK, so when the cool down bit came I went for another short run and the walked for a ways after. So I did a bit more "mileage" - but it wasn't all running.

The weighty issue is weighing on my mind. I came across the 1 Million Kilo - 10 Week Challenge site. It was free - so I signed up and have pretty much been following it for two days. The exercise plan is focussed on a circuit, with two 30 minute walks a week, but I might just change that around to 3 runs, a couple of circuits and some walking.

So today I dropped the kids off at their friends house and kept walking (dog whining after the kids "disappeared"). 6.09km (a lot on sand) in 1 hour 20 minutes.

Came home and had a healthy egg salad for lunch!

So let's see how all this good living pans out on Weigh In Wednesday - it had better make a difference!

Wednesday Weigh-In

76.4kg - 168.1 pounds

Hmmph. Up a bit. Or steady, depending on your point of view!

Eating wise, I've been OK - although the Domino's Pizza on Friday night probably didn't help! The runs have been steady (3 this week) although not long. The hip is sore-ish again.

On Monday afternoon (after the run) I did a bushwalk for work (4.5km) - a bit hilly.

 Then yesterday we did the "biggy" - Pigeon House Mountain!

Note the elevation! It was a grade 1 climb!! 5.5km, but very steep! 

I live down there somewhere...

It wasn't too hot (24C) but quite humid! I sweated buckets. And now I have sore calves!

I have to do Pebbly Beach again this afternoon, so I didn't run this morning. I am motivated to keep running, so I can do these walks without so much effort/pain. And maybe lose some weight (the run is the diet!).

Wednesday weigh-in!

No run today, but I read (somewhere...blog, facebook? Can't remember) that you should weigh yourself on a Wednesday - wake, wee and weigh! I added a number two as well - that's gotta subtract some extra grams, surely?

So...I know you are all waiting with baited breath...

76.2kg - 167.6 pounds

Well - it's 1.1kg from my starting point! And a half a kilo since last week. Slow and steady.

I have stuck to the CSIRO diet about half the time. I am trying to make better choices (but that camembert is very attractive after a couple of glasses of wine).

But if the numbers keep heading downward (even if it is slowly) I'll be happy. It's just not easy!