Thursday, August 30, 2012

Day 4

Today woke up headachey and sore after my boxing workout. Really sore. Used to get headaches after doing body combat classes but haven't had one recently :(

Dragged myself out of bed at 6:30 and took Yoshi for a 4.11 km run! Half of it spent trying to control an out of control puppy! So slow but a decent distance and around 260 calories.

Couldn't face the berry bruschetta again so I turned my berries into a shake with banana, almond milk and a protein scoop. Lunch was pumpkin soup - tasty but left me hungry. Substituted a slice of toast for the whole grain roll.

Slight lapse of a koko black chocolate (I had to check my f-day present was ok...). It would have been a Vic market donut but they were sold out at 1pm!! >:( probably just as well.

Dinner was the caramelised pork with sweet potato mash and green beans. I probably ate more meat than I was supposed to - and it was slightly overcooked as I had thin steaks. But still a bit hungry after dinner.

Realized my beef mince was going to go off so had to precook that for tomorrow night (I swear I seem to be spending too much time in the kitchen now!!) 1 cup/100g of meat (with veggies) is supposed to feed 1 person?? I think jase will be getting 2 pies!

The meal and exercise plans came out. No change in the exercise. Have adjusted the meal plan so remove the fish and vegetarian penne on Sunday night. Also replaced the minestrone soup with the leftover pumpkin - beats making another 6 serves of soup whilst there's still some in the freezer!

Exciting though next week we get some pieces of chocolate for 2 evenings and pasta a couple of times. I'll have to hide my chocolate pieces from jase though to ensure I get to eat them :)

Today's work torment was someone eating cake at me and someone else emailing me photos suggesting there was a chocolate truck downstairs :P

Work team lunch tomorrow - yum cha!! Can't wait even though it's not the capsicum sandwich I was supposed to be eating!! :)

Sore and a bit grumpy.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Day 3

Alarm set for 6:30 as I was planning on going for a short walk with the dogs.  Didn't sleep well - bit stressed about work, non-work stuff and my back and neck were really sore.  Alarm goes off, turn it off, consider going back to sleep.  Decide I should walk the dogs at about 6:45 so got out of bed, dressed, dogs leashed and eventually out of the door.  Couldn't find my headphones so put my iphone on loud in my pocket.  Started off walking then did a bit of jogging, but for the last stretch of road Yoshi just didn't want to run anymore.  Probably because I switched sides so he was on the fence side, not the grassy side where he had been previously bolting off to.

20 mins and 136 calories later back home for breakfast.  Baked beans on toast with baby spinach leaves.  Whilst I'm a big fan of baked beans it still took me a while to get through it all - still not used to eating in the mornings I don't think!!  Prepared my Mediterranean vegetable sandwich - with no enthusiasm.  Basil and ricotta, artichoke heart sliced, char grilled capsicum and chargrilled eggplant.  Not being a fan of artichoke or eggplant I was kind of dreading lunch time.  However it turned out to be ok.  It still took me about 40 minutes to get through - I ate half of it and felt pretty full.  Pushed through the second half though. I still prefer the roast beef and rocket sandwich from earlier on in the week - however I had visions of me chucking out this sandwich but it wasn't bad.  I should probably have done my own capsicum and eggplant instead of buying it from the deli - but I wasn't sure if I'd like it enough :)

Dinner was the pumpkin soup - seriously awesome to be able to go home, spend a small amount of time heating up the soup and cooking little rolls.  I didn't quite have a small wholegrain roll - but had a bake at home type woolies white little roll.  I stopped at 1 though!  Even better was that Jase was happy with the consistency.  Just the serving size was a bit too small.  I was starving afterwards - and it was a bit iffy how big a serve actually was, especially when I didn't use 2 cups of the stock because I wanted it thick.  Meh.. I think my last two containers of soup I'll just heat up at once.

Had to wait until 8:30 for my boxing class to begin - sooo annoying.  Had I not been meeting someone there it's highly likely I wouldn't have gone.  The class itself was really intense.  When he called for a break you really wanted the break.  Burnt around 260 calories.. but worked my arm muscles good! Afterwards though my knee and foot were a bit sore from kneeing and kicking the heavy bag.  Plus the foot I'd been kicking with has been the one that's been sore for the past week - so maybe I should have switched sides :)



Took me a little while to calm the brain down to sleep!!  Good class though (I think).  Shame as the parking there is atrocious - and it's a decent drive away.  But $5 a casual visit - nice!

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Day 2

Last night fell asleep during my 15 minute meditation session (iphone app).. was so tired.  But again my brain was stupid and I was awake at about 3am, and then 5:20am.  This time I thought bugger it I'm going back to sleep.  Alarm went off at 6 and was turned off.  I then woke up about 30 minutes later, back to sleep and finally up at 7.  So by this time I'm an hour off schedule (but I did feel a little better after extra sleep).  Got up, put Bear out (sorry Bear) and took my dog for a run.  2.8km approximately in around 20 minutes, then came in to do the short cardio circuit.



Because I was running late I wasn't overly prepared.  I hadn't blown up my fitball for my tricep dips (so they got skipped).  I did my pushups on my knees, did squats instead of squat jumps (as my indoor shoes were off in another room and I didn't want to be jumping barefoot).  I think I did the ice skaters wrong.  Tried doing the ab crunches and noticed how sore my neck was.. and didn't quite hold the plank for a minute.

So maybe I'll do my 25 minutes with the dog, then come in and have the dvd workout ready to go so I just follow along to that?? Or I'll do another dvd workout that doesn't require any equipment! Sure Jillian Michaels workouts are around 20-30 minutes.

So according to my HRM I only did 40 minutes of exercise and burnt about 256 calories.  I would have gone for a walk at lunchtime but as I'm leaving work a bit early today I'll most likely be working through lunch.  Won't get home until about 7:30 and after making dinner I don't think I'll want to be doing another 20 or so minutes of cardio.  So maybe I will stick with walking the dogs for 20 minutes tomorrow as I'm doing a boxing class tomorrow night.

Also as I was running late I didn't eat breakfast at home.. but diligently grated my half an apple, added to my oats, added a sprinkle of cinammon and came to work.  Turns out 1 serve of oats is MASSIVE.. I ended up chucking most of it out - as whilst apple and cinnamon sounded awesome, the taste didn't live up to the name.  Wondering if I'm allowed to add brown sugar?? :D  The thought of the Berry Bruschetta tomorrow is making me a little blegh.. so at this rate I might be going back to making my banana-berry "shakes" in the morning, as at least that's quick and I can work out rough calories for it.  I did want to try eating breakfast instead of drinking it.. but so far not loving it!



Add to that getting to work to find jelly beans on my desk (promo thing) and a project launch special (complete with sausage rolls & party pie - had 2:1 of those as I'd thrown out my breakfast and was hungry but passed on the chocolate cake).  One of my work neighbours keeps talking up his chocolate chip cookies to me, the other left a 100s and 1000s freddo on my desk yesterday.  Grrr..!  In the afternoon the freddo delivery puts chocolate cake on my desk - I move it to his (smelling the cake mmmm), he moves it back, so I put it to the other side - and when he got back he was eating it and noisily enjoying every mouthful).

Dinner was lamb cutlets with mushy peas (which I forgot to mush).  I was making more than the recipe said so that Jase didn't starve and ended up oven baking them as I didn't have a fry pan big enough to do them in one lot.  It felt a bit weird just eating lamb and peas.. but tasted alright.  Had a small cacao bite to tide me over.

Monday, August 27, 2012

And they're off....

So the fact that I published this after entering only the title suggests how tired I'm feeling lol.

At about 4pm Sunday I went grocery shopping.  About 5:30pm I finally left the supermarket a little in shock at the first grocery bill.  Hopefully there's a few items which will be reusable/last awhile as I don't want to be spending that much every week!  I guess I wasn't preparing lunches at home before but still.


Get home, get everything packed away (already had done a bit more of a tidy of the freezer and the pantry finding stuff that was out of date), then put the pumpkin in the oven to make pumpkin soup.  I made the mistake of then sitting down on the floor with my dog who attempted to curl up in my lap (he's not very little).  This made it more difficult to get the motivation to get back up and do the other half of the preparation (doing the potatoes, leek, onion in stock).  Whilst that was cooking I made Cacao Bites.  Yet to try them as I'm not sure they're going to be that sweet.  Dates, Cacao Powder and Walnuts... hmm... other people have said they're good so fingers crossed.  So after dinner (which Jase thankfully cooked) I processed my soup in the food processor (a little too full as it leaked out the top), I decided to keep it thick in the hope that Jase will eat it (not a soup fan).  The recipe was supposed to use another 2 cups of stock.. so that kind of sounds like it would be mega runny.. unless it thickens more with more heat??  The recipe was written as if you were eating it straight after but 2 tupperware containers went into the freezer, one in the fridge for dinner and another small mug in the fridge for lunch.  Tasted alright as I'm not a massive pumpkin fan.  Though I'm not sure how full I'm going to feel after eating it.  So after all that it was time to wash all the dishes I had messed up.. ALL the dishes, and the bench tops - although being a sunday night I just wanted to kick back in front of the telly.



In bed around 9:45pm with the tv on (I know that's bad.. but within a tv episode I managed to drift off to sleep). The plan was to wake up at 6am and be exercising by 6:05. I was obviously too excited about getting up early as I was awake at 2:30am, and then again at 5:20am with tossing and turning inbetween.  By 5:45 I decided there was no point going back to sleep to get up at 6 so I got out of bed.  The dogs were super excited that I was up and wanted to be up too so I let them out of their crates - then decided to put them out the back so I could do my workout in peace.  My dog decided to go bark at the neighbour's dog (or at the side door I'm not sure which) so they were brought back inside to their crates.  Now I was feeling pretty tired and not quite ready for Michelle Bridges super bubbly, excited attitude.  It took me a little while to get into the workout.  I'm not sure what size living room other people have but mine isn't so conducive to running around in a 4 pace square . Can't say I loved the Toning dvd, and burnt only 136 calories in 45 minutes (focus was on strength work though).  I think I might alternate with Bob Harper's strength dvd even though that goes for over an hour.  As I'm not after a massive weight loss I'm not going to try to make up to 500 calories for the day.  Feeling a bit sore now.. but also sore in my forearm - so it doesn't all seem like a good sore :/  In theory this is what I should have been looking like this morning!



For my cardio day I had planned to run with the dog and then do the cardio circuit after I was warmed up - but spanner in the works... the sun isn't up at 6AM and I don't feel safe running in the dark through the local streets near me :(  So the alternative is eating breakfast first (porridge) and then running - which might make me feel ill, or I ditch the planned breakfast and have a "smoothie" so that I can get up later :)  Or of course get up earlier, do the DVD warmup, then the circuit and then a run... but umm.. given how I'm feeling today after lack of sleep I'm not feeling so keen at getting up EARLIER than 6am.

Breakfast this morning was Berry Bruschetta.  I had halved the recipe as it would have been wasted on Jase - though forgot to halve the ricotta.  So had 2 pieces of grainy bread toasted, topped with (too much) ricotta, and too many berries - apparently the two "handfuls" were supposed to be smaller.  That and the berries hadn't fully defrosted yet... after one piece of toast I'd had enough and the other bit got chucked out. Made lunch which was a Roast beef sandwich with rocket, horseradish, beetroot and tomato.  Quite tasty!  Still feeling hungry though - am trying a big glass of water!!  At least my Quaker's oat apple & cinammon cookies were yummy. :)

Big brain dump today!! Let's see if I grow to love mornings.


Sunday, August 26, 2012

My last Hoorah

So Friday afternoon Mish sends out an email saying not to use the weekend prior to the program as a last binge.  Her motto "Start the way you intend to finish". Some people were complaining about how the email should have been sent out earlier.

I'd already been to Trunk Diner for a wagyu beef burger with Cheddar cheese, avocado and the salad they give you (the burger isn't massive), fries and an awesome "Gaytime" milkshake.  I noticed they also had a Tim Tam Slam milkshake AND are doing hot dogs now (which look massive - there was one with chilli con carne).  The fries were a waste of time.  They're the shoestring fries but were broken so you'd get tiny bits of fries.  Disappointing.  But the burger and milkshake were fantastic.  I might have felt a little ill afterwards!

Friday night work drinks was a cider and then some chips (as I wanted something to help absorb the alcohol).  The packet - not hot variety.  Then off to highpoint for Gomez Y Guzman (or something similar to that name) burrito bowl goodness.  Now granted I'd had a couple of chips - but when I got my burrito bowl with a side of guac I couldn't get over how big the serving was.  I would have been lucky to get through half of it.  They could easily do half serves (and charge half as much) and that would make me happy!



From there I went to Big W, and then back via Ben & Jerrys for a farewell 2 scoop cup.  Now that tasted awesome - but I had eaten way too much food. Not so awesome was the walking outside to the freezing cold eating ice cream (I haven't bought B&Js in months!!)

Next day was a healthy banana shake/smoothie thing before the SSS.  Lunch was a very nice pork sausage ragu with penne (really wanted the risotto but they were out), also had a peppermint tea.  So the drinks are getting easier with sticking to water and tea mentally.  Unless I start thinking about it :)  Saturday night was dinner at a friends place.  Moroccan themed meat dishes and grilled? vegetables, oh and couscous.  Very yummy but I had a few drinks that evening so I woke up early Sunday wanting to die.  Sunday was a piece of raisin toast and no lunch as I couldn't be bothered going to go get something.  Went to a friend's place so I ended up having corn chips and dip.  For dinner a nice roast lamb, with roast potatoes, steamed vegetables and gravy.

So the friday isn't how I intend to finish.  I imagine I'll have treat meals, but not have like 3 treat meals in the same day :)  I do think I'm eating less than what I used to - but I still look at MB's recipes and wonder how I'm supposed to feel full after a 125g "Chicken Parmigiana" - but maybe I have indeed been eating too big a portion size!!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

First week planned

So last Thursday the exercise plans and food/recipes got released. Overall looks pretty good! There's a few food items I've swapped out. Briefly considered the Cajun fish stew but meh! Have swapped out the breakfast frittata as I don't have a grill - and realised a banana breakfast smoothie would be easier before our Saturday group session. Will be trying heaps of different food which is pretty cool! Will be super weird taking in prepared lunches especially! I've also printed out the intermediate indoor and outdoor workouts.

Now that I have the plan I can complete the organise and diarise task (for week 1). Already I have 2 red flag days. Friday is a work team lunch we try to do fortnightly - I figure I'll try to find a vego dish (I'm supposed to be eating a roast capsicum sandwich). Sunday is fathers day. No idea what's happening for it. Shame as that's when I'm supposed to be enjoying a beef and red wine stew. My Saturday lunch is supposed to be leftovers and dinner is open. Hoping to persuade jase to make something yummy. As long as I don't go overboard! :)

So the plan:
Monday - toning DVD (supposed to be on Tuesday but I'm working around a boxing circuit class on Wednesday).
Tuesday - 25 mins cardio run with the puppy followed by the cardio circuit (outdoors planned for Monday).
Wednesday - potential walk with both puppies, boxing class at derrimuts at night. Will see how many meatheads go :/
Thursday - 25 mins cardio run with the puppy followed by cardio circuit that was planned for Wednesday.
Friday - Bob Harper yoga DVD
Saturday - group pt session with the Transformers
Sunday - well earned rest!

But to do all that I'll be getting up at 6 am most weekdays. Seriously?!! Hopefully I don't have my usual insomnia - if I miss a morning workout I'll do the full DVD option when I get home from work!

Must do my supermarket shopping tomorrow - might need to change that to Saturdays in future in case something unexpected crops up!

It's amazing how full the diary seems when you plan everything out. Only thing missing is my snacks but will have to see what I find at the supermarket.

Good luck everyone :)

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Warm up challenges (4, 5, 6)

Here are the second set of warm up challenges

4. Write Down Everything You Eat

Over the next 7 days I want you to write down everything you eat and drink. Don't change your diet, eat as you always have. I'm not quite eating as I always have but I'm still having "naughty" stuff (by the end of the week more so :))

Mon - Raisin Toast x 2 slices, cheesy pasta, prime rib with roasted beetroot, onions and potatoes. Coconut water (without the splash of fruit juice, glasses of water)

Tues - Kapai Puku with almond milk, leftover prime rib steak and beetroot sandwich with white bread,  jam doughnut (from the vic market), Carman's Dark Choc Cranberry & Almond bar, chicken stirfry with udon noodles. Chai Tea, glasses of water

Wednesday - banana, raspberry and almond milk smoothie, beans on toast, big Mac (oops), 2 pieces of pizza hut pizza (oops)

Thursday - The second half of my smoothie from yesterday. Pear, a huge bowl of penne with chicken and mushrooms (well it was a girly lunch that I specifically had to have my last bowl of creamy tasty pasta - although it wasn't that creamy), a glass of Shiraz Cabernet, a 100s and 1000s freddo (it was for charity and the guy next to me has had 4 sitting on his desk uneaten all week, although it left me with a horrid sickly sweet aftertaste - boo!), small chicken stirfry and less than normal basmati rice, a weak glass of ribena

Friday - Kapai Puku with almond milk, Half a strawberry freddo twin pack (thanks desk buddy), Lamb Rogan Josh with rice, garlic naan, papadum with yoghurty stuff (I think I had too much naan but it sure was tasty), Apple Cider and a handful or potato chips, fried rice with beef

Saturday - my breakfast smoothie, small penne carbonara, a much too sweet mocha (good though), cinnamon doughnut, slice and a bit of iced fruit bun, peppermint tea, chicken taco, chocolate pudding with cream

Sunday - no breakfast as jase had to fix the rangehood (yay for having someone handy!), beef with fried rice (too salty - maybe MSG in there), cadbury's creation bar (jelly bean and popping candy - why am I just trying this a week before the program starts?!), roast lamb with potatoes, pumpkin, gravy, steamed carrot, corn and brocolli.

Wow looking back on that I sure eat lots of crap!!   I think I'm supposed to work out daily calories - but they'd just be largely guesses anyway.  From a take away perspective we did pretty good this week.  Friday, Saturday and Sunday all involved 1 meal eaten out - but it's not rare that we'd eat out twice on a saturday!  Alcohol intake was pretty good.   I look forward to having more meal ideas after the 12 weeks! :)

5. Set Yourself a Meal Schedule

This challenge is about pre-planning what you will to eat and also when you will eat it.  If I could be bothered organising my own meals and meal schedule I wouldn't have signed up for this challenge :)

I do see the benefit in pre-planning.  Makes it easier to eat healthy stuff if it's all planned out.

Can't wait until the program starts complete with shopping lists so that my thinking is largely done!


6. Track How Much You Spend On Food

How many times do you open your wallet each day to buy food?

Monday - almost bought Maccas but after waiting awhile and then having a little asian woman cut in front of me I decided just to eat at home.
Tues - $1 doughnut.
Wednesday - $4.80 big Mac.
Thursday -$22 for pasta and my glass of shiraz cabernet, $1 for a freddo
Friday - $20 for lamb rogan josh meal
Saturday - $2 water, $15 for pasta and mocha
Sunday -$12 for my rice and pasta

It's a bit rare that I'd organise a group lunch in the same week the work developer group lunch would happen - plus it was someone's farewell lunch on the friday as I wasn't stoked about paying $20 for indian food (not including a drink!) I think part of my choices are influenced by the fact I know I have 8 days to go before I'm "eating clean".  Whilst I'm sure it won't be as bad as part of me expects - it's still sitting there in my mind!  At least I've cut back on how much I buy from the work vending machine :)

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

First fitness test

Well I wasn't sure when I was going to find the time to do my fitness test as its usually dark by the time I get home from work and in the mornings I wanted to either run with the dog or do a DVD.

So I came home and did it - just as I ran out of daylight :)

My results:
1km time trial: 5:41
Pushups (toes/knees): 6/25
Abs: level 3 (meaning I can do them with hands behind head elbows out but not arms crossed behind head)
Wall sit: 1:30 (umm ow!!!)
Reach: 0 (was surprised I made it to my toes!!)

Benchmark set - will redo in 4 weeks I think!

Why I should exercise in the morning!

So last night I put all my running gear in a basket so that I could get out of bed this morning and go running.

Unfortunately I was awake at 5:30 (alarm set for 6:40).  It was dark and cold and I was keen to go back to sleep - but it took me a little while to get back to sleep.  I remember thinking that I'd have to get up even earlier than this if I was to try a 6am exercise class so that didn't seem likely!!  So by the time my alarm went off I had been in a deep sleep and really didn't want to wake up so I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep.  7:30 and my partner's alarm went off.  I then woke up and started doing stuff on the iphone (making room to store some MOG songs, but also checking up on facebook) so I didn't get out of bed until 8 and then it was a mad rush to get ready for work.  It also meant that I didn't have breakfast at home but thankfully there was yoghurt in the fridge at work!  It's doubtful that I'll go for my run when I get home as its usually close to being dark when I get home and I don't trust the area I live in to run when its dark.

But it's led me to make this post to remind me of why I want to get up early and exercise in the mornings.

1. It's awesome knowing I can come home and have the evening free to do non-exercise stuff.
2. I'm pretty good at making excuses to not exercise when I get home.
3. It would have been good to tire out the dog before I left for work (although I tire out before he does!)
4. I generally feel pretty good after exercising.

Although that said I was feeling pretty sore when I got out of bed - so I'm not sure if running would have loosened my legs and glutes or made the soreness worse :)

I think the plan will be to go for a run tomorrow before work and go to my planned boxing class at 7pm tomorrow night.  I don't want to tire myself out too much before the class - I don't even know how I'm going to survive 30 minutes of boxing.  I was doing 1:30 rounds on the weekend in our group session and barely being able to do anything with my arms afterwards :)

Most other mornings I've been good and not read facebook before getting out of bed.. but it felt like one of those mornings today!  There wasn't even anything that I couldn't have just read later in the day!!

Am also hoping my herbal tablets I'm trying (for improving the quality of my sleep) start working soon as it would make getting out of bed earlier a lot easier if I was sleeping through the night!!


Monday, August 20, 2012

My first SSS

So on Saturdays there is supposed to be a 1000 calorie burning super session. The slight problem with that is I don't really wanting to be doing more than 1.5 hr workout. We'll see if that changes as the program kicks into gear. I think the theory is 1 hr of cardio and 1 hr of strength work. But I'd like to be able to rely on the local 12wbters group session. Today 524 calories in 1:12:00.

So preparation for this wasn't awesome. I walked highpoint for ages the night before and ended up with a sore foot, sore calve muscle from previous days workouts and sore lower back. I also slept badly and really didn't want to get out of bed when my alarm went off at 7:45am. But jase kicked me out of bed so I made my breakfast smoothie, got the dogs out of bed and into my exercise gear (me not the dogs).

The weather was kind to us - whilst it was grey and cold the rain stayed away until our last station and then poured down as we attempted planks in the park's gazebo. One of our team members (thanks Shannon!!) set up the stations with laminated signs, equipment and timed music and got us warmed up, exercised, planked and stretched :) I'm not sure I did the leg stations hard enough as my legs are mildly noticeable whereas my arms are dead and I feel like someone has kicked me in the guts! It was good group though for our first workout with a nice even number and a chance to get to know one another whilst working out. I look forward to finding out more peoples' story :)

Post workout was on an adrenaline high though my eating probably could have been heaps better. But will be interesting to see the scales on Wednesday compared to last week, given I've eaten stuff I wouldn't during my 12 weeks and increased my exercise intensity.

Here was the view on finishing!


Sunday, August 19, 2012

Organise and diarise

This task highlights how important planning is for success. Red flag days with "disruptions". Early morning training is best to ensure excuses don't derail the workout. Apparently we need to allow for a big shop per work with maybe a top up shop during the week. MB recommends scheduling your shopping day, and a cooking day with options of freezing or fridging meals for the week.

So off I went to highpoint walking from one end of the centre to the other and then back again. Surprisingly in August it's quite difficult to find a 2012 organiser!! So ended up with some smiggle goodies. A small spiral notebook for writing down each day's food and exercise, a set of memo sticky notes in the shape of a polar bear, some cool pens, pencils (buy 5 for $3 or 1 for $1.99 so what are you going to do?!), an eraser in the shape of a polar bear and of course a pencil sharpener for my new pencils.



All these gung ho people have gone ahead and scheduled their next 13 weeks. Me? I'm waiting for the exercise and food plans and then I'll write it down. I want to know what suggestions MB has for each day (gym/home/outdoors) before I make my plans :/

The other part of my task - set 4, 8 and 12 week milestones. Loosely they're the three runs for the spring into shape series. Run 4 km without stopping, depending on my fitness level - run 4km quicker, or 8km slowly but still 8km, and the final run 8km with the plan to run that without stopping apart from a couple of water breathers.

It doesn't quite line up with the program though. I think the runs are at 2 weeks, 6 and 10... I might give some more thought to the milestones. I'm not sure if they're supposed to be different to the goals set in the earlier task!!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Kitchen Makeover

So this task was about clearing out your kitchen - and as shiney as it sounded it didn't quite happen like the video demonstrated :)

Step 1.  Pull a bin into the middle of the room, open pantry and proceed to chuck out doritos, tim tams, etc..

OK - no biscuits or corn chips to be found in the pantry.  There are however non salt reduced asian sauces, my baking goods, and a packet of pop tarts which I spent about 2 hours tracking down someone with stock to get some as I hadn't had them in about 20 years (am I that old?!! :( ).  Granted I haven't touched the box of pop tarts in at least a month. Some other stuff I might have eaten (ssh!) - like the Muesli bars I have at work (but they are Low GI and Wheat Free).  So technically I might have failed the task as my theory has been I won't rebuy it but I'm not chucking it out! :)

I did throw out some things like the sugar laden ginger beer that's been sitting in the fridge for months and anything past its use by date - but I'm not in the habit of opening up the pantry and hunting through it for snacks.  I also didn't see the point in throwing out my asian sauces and baking goods.  I doubt I'm going to turn into a person who thinks "this food is evil" and never touch them again - I'll just make sure there's an abundance of healthy stuff being consumed :)

I won't be buying crap at the supermarket so if anything comes into the house that Jase wants to eat he'll be buying it! I'll be sticking to the shopping lists I hope :)

Step 2. (ARGH! Now I have the lyrics to the NKOTB song going through my head). Have an enrolment conversation with everyone in the house.

Well I didn't throw anything significant out so there wasn't much of a conversation to have.  Before I signed up there was the warning of "You probably won't like the food - but it's what I'll be cooking, you can fend for yourself if you don't like it" :)

Step 3. Use the shopping list to stock up on healthy foods.

So we haven't seen the eating plan, or the first week's shopping lists but she mentions stuff to get us started.  Now a lot of the Pantry Essentials I wouldn't know what to do with without a recipe, and I don't want to eat anchovies or tinned fish.  I do have MSG free stock cubes, canned tomatoes and dried herbs but there was lots of stuff I didn't have.  I figured instead of spending a fortune stocking up the pantry 2 weeks before we get our eating plan that I would just wait and buy pantry stuff as needed.

As a plus I do have kitchen scales and measuring spoons (I'm not sure where the whole set is) but might need to get a new set of measuring cups, just because I know I'm missing some of the measurements - and someone else blogged about these awesome babushka style owl cups. But on the whole - check!

I don't have the fridge essentials - and am not super keen on the low-cal (skim) milk or soy milk.. but I thought my almond milk was supposed to be healthy so I'll stick with that.  Again I'll wait for my eating plan before stocking it up.

It's a little frustrating not having the eating plan yet - I'm sure that would help with the shopping but never mind :)




Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Giving up!!

No.. not the program  - which hasn't officially started yet.. but bad food!




So I might still be in a little bit of denial that I should be eating healthy now, not just when the program officially starts.  Here are some of my weaknesses.

Pizza - I love pizza!! Even before the days of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!  But sometimes the pizza just isn't worth it.  We have a dodgy place just down the road, where I grabbed a small Hawaiian pizza from last friday - sometimes they have good days and the pizza is super yummy, other days it just tastes puffy, oily and largely flavourless.  Left me with a stomach-ache :(

Fish and Chips  - we went through a phase of not having fish and chips (I usually get grilled Fish so that counts for something right?!) - but recently I've had it a few times, also getting a yummy potato cake!  But I had this a week ago and after eating my grilled fish and fried chips I felt like I had drank a cup of oil - it seriously left an awful after taste.  I assume they must soak their chips in oil, or not have it at the right temperature or something?!  Or I've just never realised how oily chips taste.  I had their chips at a BBQ on the weekend and again the awful oily after taste. I'm not sure I can convince myself that potato cakes taste bad - but hopefully I won't waste my "chip quota" on chips that are going to make me feel crap.

Jam Donuts - There is an awesome donut truck at the Vic Market, that do "American Style" doughnuts - whatever that means.  The dough seems a slightly different texture but they're still sugar coated jammy doughnuts that taste awesome.  The only thing I can say about this is that they can leave a sickly sweet after taste - ie. too sweet.  I want to keep going to the market for stuff but I'm not sure I'll be able to pass the donut truck without stopping by.  $1 too!

Burgers - the Fish and Chip place does a pretty good traditional style burger.  But I think I'll choose to fill my burger quota with Jase's komodo home cooked burgers.  Maybe I can find a nice wholemeal bun or go breadless with salad instead...

Coke Zero - already given up.  Even when we've had free access to soft drink at work recently I've diligently stuck with my glass of water and sulked a little. :)

Popcorn - I LOVE popcorn.  But I love popcorn covered in butter and salt!  It's a good thing that I used up the last popcorn at home, and recently when we've gone to the movies I've eaten just beforehand and felt too full to eat popcorn.  But it means I have to put up with hearing other people eat it in the cinemas and I can drown it out with my own chewing.  It's a good thing we don't go to the cinemas often.

White Bread - Whilst I don't eat a lot of white bread (I'm not a fan of sandwiches) - I do prefer white bread if I'm going to have toast (I just don't like the taste of sourdough and multigrain is super annoying).  I also love crunchy white rolls with lots of butter.  But for the 12 weeks I'll have wholemeal if I have bread.

Chocolate - I tend to do alright with Chocolate unless people around me are eating it.  I try not to buy it for home because if I have a block of chocolate or box of maltesers sitting there then I struggle to pace myself.  Unfortunately work has a lolly jar so that when people are late for morning standups they contribute a $1 for the jar.  Then at our fortnightly meetings we then get to consume lollies/chocolate (as well as when walking past the table where the jar sits).  I think I need to tell more people at work that I'm doing this program.  The guys either side of me know - though they also know I haven't started yet ;)

Corn Chips - Mmmmm corn chips and Pringles are another weakness.  Just recently someone got me onto Mission cornchips and they taste awesome!! So much better than Doritos!  But I imagine they're still not on Michelle Bridge's healthy snack list.  Pringles - once I pop I can't stop.  I did write a post it note to myself to remind myself that CCs are not as awesome as I remember.  But then discovered Mission chips which don't seem to leave the same aftertaste :)

Cheese?  I'm sure Bob Harper says there are some cheese that are ok - but they're probably the cheddar (blegh) as opposed to a nice creamy Brie :)  This one will be annoying as we get Cheese and Chips on a Friday when the work bar opens.  That said I'm guessing my cider or red wine won't be part of the program calories :(

Dumplings!! Although I'm hoping here I could maybe have a few steamed ones and that would be ok as I don't want to give them up completely.  Maybe I can make some at home so I know the filling will be good quality :)  I feel my resolve wavering... :)

I can't say that I think I'll give these up for good but I'll make a massive effort to eat healthy for the program duration!



Warm up challenges (1,2,3...)

1. Make one small change

So I watched mish's video on sleeping where she sets the challenge for 14 days to be in bed by 9:30 pm and stay off the iPhone, away from the tv, etc. You're then supposed to get up at 6am. Though it's ok to relax it to 7am on the weekend.

My first reaction was wtf?!! Why would you want to be awake at 6am for?? Now I've never been a morning person and for awhile now I've been waking up around 4:30am, struggling to get back to sleep, eventually falling back asleep before my alarm and feeling dead when it went off. The first night I went to sleep at 9:30pm I woke up at 3:30 - grr! I also tried going to bed at 9:30pm on a Friday night but seriously who wants to be in bed by then?  Pretty sure my grumpiness kept me awake hehe.

So as a compromise I set my alarm for 7am on weekdays.  I started out strong - for the first week apart from one day where I had a serious lack of sleep I managed to drag myself out of bed and do at least 30 minutes of exercise. This however has been going so well this week as I've been waking up at 1am or 3am and tossing and turning until about 6am.  I figure some sleep is in order for me to get safely to and from work and through my work day!  I really hope I can kick this insomnia thing as it's driving me nuts.

I've also been resisting having the tv on when I go to bed (sometimes it sends me off to sleep great!), and most nights avoid doing a late check on facebook and the 12wbt.com site but I could work harder at this.  I tend to read books on my ipad and sometimes I can be good and stick to only that but last night for example I noticed some other people had updated their blogs so then I was reading theirs, and adding comments and in general waking myself up.  Though it doesn't explain the waking up middle of the night bizzo.

It's not a great defense - but here's what the outside world looked like at 6:30am on Monday.. and I was supposed to be up at 6am to be working out?!

I think I may need to restart this task :) 

2. Halve your non water intake

So a month or two ago I decided it was time to give up coke zero. I *loved* coke zero. I hear a crack of a can opening and I'm left wanting a coke. So it's definitely not been easy. Especially with a vending machine in the kitchen at work with the bargain price of $1.50. I also hate drinking water - tastes so boring. However a person I sit next to at work gave up caffeine so that helped push me, plus we can sympathise with each other when we're eating pizza or eating fried rice about the disappointing lack of coke!  It didn't help that I saw a video with Mish saying she enjoys the occasional diet coke ARGH!! But I'll stick with Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper on their cut back of chemical/artificial stuff :)

Anyway back to the task. I already have weak ribena so was sad to think I'm supposed to give that up. But I've tried to have more plain water at home. I've also tried to have less wine than I usually would when we opened a bottle of red at home. It's a start!!

I need to bring in a bottle at work so that I'm not having to get up so often to fill up my glass of water.  As it just seems like a big hassle and I don't do it as often as I should!

3. Set yourself an exercise goal.

So this task was supposed to involve 30km of exercise in one week. Umm say what? I was 2 days into pre-season and I was supposed to do that?? Maybe as a member of a gym or push bike rider this might have been feasible but with running as my option I wasn't about to do 6 days of 5kms. With a dodgy back I think that would have pushed me too far. So I do my 30 minutes before work. I've been alternating running the dog with a DVD workout with a solo run on weekends . Yoshi's idea of pace doesn't quite lend itself to me running/walking more than 3km with him but does seem to burn calories!

Maybe at the end of the 12 weeks I'll be capable of doing 30km!  Or maybe it's just me making excuses and I could easily do it now if I wanted it bad enough. :)

At the very least I need to get myself back to exercising every morning.  Last two mornings I've missed my workout due to lack of a good night's sleep.  :(

Friday, August 10, 2012

Say It Out Loud


My commitment is to stick to the 12 week program following Michelle Bridge's healthy eating plan and exercise routine and I am committed to do the work to get me there.

Today's pre season task is to Say it out loud.  To put our goals out there and make the commitment to achieving it. So it seemed a good day to start a new blog about my experience :)

My $199 is paid up, I have found some ladies to workout with at the very least for our Saturday Super Sessions.  I have started getting up a little earlier and doing exercise in the mornings.  I imagine the time commitment is going to seem difficult and I may well find myself needing to get out of bed earlier to do the hour workout I'm supposed to be doing 6 days a week, as well as eating a healthy breakfast and having lunch prepared!  Must keep in mind how nice it is to get home and be free to do whatever I want (without the need to exercise).  Hopefully my brain stops waking me up in the middle of the night.  This morning I reset my alarm to get in theory another 20 minutes of sleep due to lying awake.

I had hoped to go back to the Maidstone Health Club who are still offering their $199 membership but turns out the only class they are running currently is Zumba, and their website advertises their equipment is getting a much needed upgrade in November.  Sucks because it is super close.

Enjoying our work fundraising breakfast this morning it feels like its going to be a major challenge following the food plan for 12 weeks, and I imagine Jase might be left fending for himself a bit more as he probably won't like the meals that I'll be eating - but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised by what I get to eat :)

I've signed up to this 12 week program so I may as well give it everything I have and see where it takes me!

18 days to go...


Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Exercising with Dogs

So I've been varying taking my Puggle Puppy for a run in the mornings with doing an exercise dvd in the loungeroom.  I feel a bit guilty leaving them in their crates whilst I'm working out so I thought I'd see how they'd go whilst I was doing a yoga workout.

So I let them out of their crates and they ran outside whilst I set up my mat and towel and got the dvd going. The staffy then ran back in and jumped excitedly over the mat and started doing little downward dog moves with his tail wagging.  I managed to get him off my mat so I could start my workout.  Then my Puggle puppy ran back in, ran in front of me, tried to chew my towel, then proceeded to roll around in front of me before going back to trying to steal my towel.

They were both stupidly excited but not quite ready to let me do a Yoga workout in peace :)

This is Bear the Staffy doing pushups whilst I was sitting in front of the telly (from a completely different day but I thought it was cute)


Monday, August 6, 2012

Gear up

The third pre-season task is about gearing up.

Six workouts a week based on what program you choose. I think I chose the intermediate tone up program - but there's a fitness test coming up to help determine that's the right one for me. Intermediate means I'm supposed to be exercising already - but since signing up I've started.

The at home workout suggests I need a bench, but supposedly a fitness ball will suffice. The outdoor workout apparently requires some lateral thinking to have the necessary "equipment". Ideally I'd be at a gym but I refuse to sign up to another gym membership unless I know I'm going to get my money's worth this time! We'll see how we go at home and with a Saturday outdoors workout. I still wonder how we're supposed to burn 1000 calories on Saturdays!

Thanks to the program I got a new polar heart rate monitor at 30% off with free express delivery, and 50% off berlei bras thanks to someone in a 12wbt Facebook group. Super happy with my FT60 - it's so satisfying seeing statistics about your workout!  Plus it arrived the day after placing the order. Potentially I need new running shoes but I think they'll be waiting at least another month.  Will also see how necessary a fitball is. Hopefully we get the program in advance.

It'll be good to start getting use out of the drawer of fitness clothes I own :)



Saturday, August 4, 2012

Take control - set your goal

Pre-season task 2 was about setting SMART goals in 1,3,6 and 12 month blocks. This for me was tricky. I'm awful at setting goals. But was time to identify Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Based goals.

Michelle's example was to run a marathon. Hmm.. ok my 12 month goal will be to run a half marathon which means in six months time I should be running 10km no problem, three months time 5km. How am I going to get there? Well the spring into shape series is a good start. With 4 and 8 km options I'm planning on running 4km in a month's time and hoping to be running 8km in the last race. The second race I'll see how my body responds to training.  I've always had a bit of a dodgy back but it seems worse than normal in the last six months. I think I got a bit over enthusiastic in a kettle bell workout which had me hobbling around for at least a month.

I've also thrown in some goals about participating in group workout sessions and attending group exercise classes.  Turns out my local gym no longer does anything but Zumba until Summer and I don't see myself sticking around later after work to the city gym near work. I have a few kilos to lose but for me its mainly about getting into the habit of eating healthy, working out and toning up!  Gone are the days where I can eat whatever I want whilst sitting on the couch! :(

Hopefully the fitness and eating programs help me get to a good fitness level over the next 12 weeks once pre-season is finished.


Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Get real - no more excuses

The first pre-season task covered excuses. Excuses I had been using for awhile now.

I'm too tired, too cold, it's too dark. I don't have enough time. I want to be doing something fun!

Michelle bridges says just do it. Put on your running shoes and get out that door. Surprisingly enough after doing it - its not so bad!

I'm now getting out of bed an hour earlier and either walk/jogging with the puppy or I'm doing a 30 minute workout in front of the Telly. I also now have a good selection of Michelle Bridges, Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper workouts.

Key lesson learnt - don't rely on motivation, make exercise a part of daily life. Recognise the self-sabotaging excuses and get past them.

Will be interesting to see if that's my reality after 12 weeks of working out 6 days a week! It's hard to break the cycle of excuses, but recognizing what is in my control is a start. Remember just do it!


Signed up!

After expressing interest in doing the 12WBT challenge last round I ended up signing up to the BobHarper website.  Where the promise of videos of Bob doing workouts seemed motivating enough.  So a few months down the track and I've made a couple of breakfast smoothies from the recipes and worked out with a bunch of videos.  Unfortunately they've gotten progressively more rep based with lots of standing around listening to instruction or require a chair, step or room to do walking lunges.  As much as I like doing a workout which is under 15 minutes I'm not convinced that it's doing that much for me.  Sometimes I just want to switch the brain off and follow an exercise workout (not worry about reps, keeping count, etc).

So Michelle Bridge's new 12wbt program was announced and a few people I knew were doing it so I thought why not.  My workout regime had dropped off - seriously who wants to work out in Winter with the cold and darkness!

I must admit I felt a little overwhelmed by how pumped everyone sounded on the forums - within days people had organised meetups. At first I was like Nah I don't think I'm ready to meet up with people yet, I want to ease into the program - but then wondered why I was posting on forums introducing myself and what area I lived in if I didn't really want to meet up with people offline. So after a few private messages from people (thanks tania and natalia!) I thought what the hell and agreed to go to the meetup on the Saturday. Turns out it wasn't that scary after all :)  Though I'm not sure I love the Boatshed menu and service.  When we walked up to the bar to pay the guy goes $30.  Umm ok how about printing out a bill for us with a breakdown because there's like 6 of us standing to pay?

It's going to be a massive challenge sticking to 12 weeks of an eating plan and exercise routine.  6 days of workouts??  I've missed the warm-up period (so I feel a little behind already) but in time for the pre-season tasks.  Time to get the head right :)