Goals Goals Goals

I feel like I've being doing all the right things this round - food is on track and I'm exercising almost every day and the number on the scales is going down. Those were things I needed to get into my routine as advice I've been given is that is take 21 days to form a habit.

Now I feel like I am ready to start looking at other goals for this round of things that will challenge me and that I'm excited to do. Here they are:

Week	Goals
3	5km beach walk + swim
4	Morning workout - get up at do a workout before work
5	Run 1km non-stop
6	Mt Cootha Loop Walk
7	5 bridge walk (~13kms)
8	Swim 250m continuous freestyle
9	Go ice-skating
10	Bike Ride 25kms
11	Mt Gravatt Lookout Walk
12	Courtney Day - Movie, Massage, Pedicure

This week was my week 3 Goal: Do a 5km walk at the coast followed by a swim in the ocean. I've been heading down to the beach the last few weeks for a swim, and last week did a bit of a beach workout but I wanted to add a 5km walk and follow it up with a dip in the ocean.

Last night I did a 5km worth of hill walks while waiting for Rich to finish work. So it was also nice that I round my km's for the weekend to 10. A nice round number.

5km of hill walks - this must of been the start as I'm smiling and not so sweaty yet

Mish shoes pacing the dark streets

After the 5km of hill walks - sweaty, sore and tired



Aqua class with an awesome bunch of ladies - this was at the end - say hello to Australia's newest synchronized swimming team

View on my beach walk - gorgeous view

After my 5km walk



After my swim - super windy day!

Slurpie time after my morning at the beach!

Week 3 Wrap Up

First onto Weigh in Wednesday! Another 500grams lost today never to be seen again! This makes a total of 2.3kg since the start of round! And also makes it 5 more weeks exactly (my birthday is on Wednesday) until my first goal – to be under 100kg! I have updated my Every Kilo page with current stats. Can’t wait to see more green on there this round!

So my exercise plan has continued on a strong path since my last update with  completing PT, swimming, beach workouts, more swimming and a kettlebell workout with my new 8kg Kettlebell Bella! Food has also been pretty spot on. No binges, and even after a night out for dinner for Valentines day, I was super happy with my 500g loss! 

Life has gotten in the way a little so far this week. I had a great kettlebell and skipping workout on Monday after work, but yesterday went home with a massive headache. I’m pretty sure it was due to dehydration so this afternoon I’m trying to get the water consumption up. 

Drinking enough water has always been a huge challenge for me. Add into that a coke zero addiction and you could say I’m chronically under-hydrated. So from now until next Wednesday I’m am going to challenge myself to drink 2 litres of water per day. Will be interesting to see what effect that has on weight loss for the week too!

I also feel like I need to up the intensity of my workouts. I now know it is possible to get home and do a workout after work so working out longer and harder is the next goal. I can burn through 500 cals in a 45 minute session with my PT, but at home I’m lucky to get around 250-300 for the same amount of time. I think this is purely to do with how much harder I work when there is someone there pushing you, plus my 3 gorgeous friends who do it with me. 

I am also struggling with swimming training – I LOVE swimming but it really doesn’t produce a high calorie burn and adding to this, my heart rate monitor works only when it wants to in water. BUT I need to continue swimming if I want to hit my goal of swimming 750m continuous freestyle. What I’m hoping is that as I get fitter in the water, and can swim further and faster the calorie burn will rise.

Another challenge I have given myself this round is to fit into these shorts:

Project Shorts

I was debating whether to post this or not, but I need some accountability with it so here goes!

More pics from this week:

Beach training, swim and breaky (and no, didn't eat all that bacon!)

Protein pancakes with maple/blueberry sauce and a little low fat cream.

Using my foam roller for the second time....in a year...

Kettlebell Routine!

So sweaty after my kettlebell routine, and yes, I did train next to the bins!

My beloved sunglasses have broken!

My inspiration at work - my gorgeous friends.

Next post! Goals for this round!

After work exercise - WINNING!

I am proud to announce this week is the first week I’ve ever exercised every since night after work!

It was a challenge I set myself to get into the habit of working out every night. I am terrible at getting up early during the week, so nights it is!

Monday was running intervals, Tuesday swimming – swimming and water running at home, Wednesday was a walk, Thursday was my regular PT session and tonight was a long swim at an aquatic centre.

I have also been 90% on for food. The only additions to what I had planned was a chocolate on Wednesday – regretted it as soon as I finished it – it didn’t even taste good! So lesson learnt there, and dinner last night for Valentine’s Day celebrations. I skipped desert, and only ate my main meal until I was full so I see that as a win. Next Wednesday’s weigh in will tell the tale I’m sure. 

One thing that has surprised me this week is that I did all of this without excel spreadsheets and loads of planning. I just did it – didn’t think, just did. That has been my mantra all week. I really didn’t feel like eating my ham and salad for lunch today. I really wanted Sushi. But I just stopped thinking, and just ate it, and it was yummy and everything is okay and there will still be a day that I will eat Sushi! 

It would usually be around this time of the day that I would start thinking about excuses not to go to the pool. I’m too tired, or the pool will be cold or how nice would it be just to go home and sit on the couch. But I stop thinking about it and I will just do it. If I let those excuses win, I will be no closer to my goal and I have BIG goals!

Running Intervals on Monday

402 cals for running intervals!

Swimming on Tuesday

Lunch today, salad with ham! Yum!

12wbt Round 1 (February Start) and Finale

What an amazing weekend. A tiring weekend, a weekend of learning, a weekend of facing reality, and a weekend that I think will change my life. That’s a lot of responsibility for a weekend, but it happened.

This weekend just passed was the 12wbt Summer Festival. It was the even that replaced the Finale/Workout weekend. When it was first announced that there would be no finale night a lot of people were upset, but after my experience on the weekend I can say that the Summer Festival was amazing. There were lots of workshops, and more access to Michelle and so much more time to meet new people!

I was also fortunate enough to be asked to be one of the One Active Fashion models for the Fashion Parade! A nerve wracking but exciting proposal that turned out to be a big wake up call for me. 

More on that soon, let’s start from the beginning of the weekend.

Saturday night was the unofficial party/drinks organised by the talented and gorgeous Julie and was a wonderful night to catch up with friends, and make online friends into in-person friends. It’s always inspiring to hear others stories of how successful their 12wbt round was, or what they learnt, or the things they challenged themselves with. 

After 5 hours sleep it was time to go to the 30 plus Breakfast that is held each round, and after a lovely breakfast it was time to head over to the Convention Centre to start getting our makeup done for the fashion parade. There was just enough time to get our base makeup done, so when it was time to go on all that needed done was finishing up! 

The first session I went to was the Mindset session by Michelle Bridges and 3 of my friends were guest speakers: The amazing Kate, formidable Cathy and the gorgeous Kirsty! This session was my favourite of the day. Hearing Mish, in person, as well as the women on stage, I had some true eye-opening moments and thoughts of clarity. If I want to be where I want to be, I have to change the now. Don’t think, just do.

These thoughts were cemented by all the photos of the day. Except for a few photos of my face, I hated every single photo I’ve so far seen of the weekend. I look un-healthy and that scares me. I’m finally understanding that what I think I see in the mirror is not actually what’s real. A lot of the time I don’t actually feel “big”. I feel unfit when doing events, but never really felt big. Now I can see it – and it scares me, and I hate it, and it’s time to change it for good. No more yo-yo-ing weights. It’s only down from here.

After a year of doing 12wbt rounds, I know what to do. I know what to eat, and I know what exercise to do. Just do, don’t think. 

The fashion parade was such a privilege to be in. I was excited and nervous all at once, and also didn’t feel like I completely deserved to be there. Yes, I’ve challenged myself in the last year with lots of events, but I haven’t lost much weight (up and down in the same 10kg range), and I was up there on stage with others who could say they have. I felt huge, and uncomfortable, but gave it my best – put on a smile and faked confidence. The 12wbt staff and the crew they had working with them were just amazing, telling us all how gorgeous we were and what a good job we were doing so I am very thankful to them.

And now to some pictures - the ones I did like ( the ones I didn’t are great before photos!)

The Supermodel Green Room

Our shoes!

Meeting Mish! She took time out her busy rehearsal to come say hi to us!

Look at those guns!

Morning of the Festival - at 30+ Breaky

See? I really was a model!

Great "before"photo

Kurrawa To (not quite) Duranbah - 15km walk

I have this habit of coming up with events to do, or things I want to accomplish without thinking too much about them or training for them. I did this again on Sunday!

I had a huge weekend of hair appointments, family Christmas BBQs and the Taylor Swift concert on Saturday, and then had signed up to 15km running/walking event on Sunday morning on the Gold Coast.

Saturday was a lot of fun – love getting my hair done (cut and colour) and then off to see family for lunch, then home to get ready for the Taylor Swift concert. I ended up being out of the house from 8am to 3:30pm, then out again at 4:30pm and not home until 11:30pm. Not even time for a nap as I had planned!

And then, I had to get up at 3:30am to get down to Kurrawa for the walk! 4 hours sleep! Far out! I did not think this through at all!

But there I was – alarm went off and I was up and getting ready for Kate to pick me up at 4am!

Outside my house at 4am - sun was just starting to rise!

We got down to Kurrara at around 5:15am, got our race packs and Kate was off on her 30km! You can read all about her massive milestone here. An hour later I was off for my 15km walk. I started off fast to get my legs going but still had the horrible calf pain I always get for these events. I had a new tactic though!

At the start line!

First, I bought some compression tights for my calves at the event from a stall selling running stuff, and second, used a lot of self talk, as in, I talked to my own calves. Yes, I probably sounded crazy, but I was walking on my own so I don’t think too many people heard me!

Compression tights!

My muscles always seem to relax from top to bottom with those side ankle muscles (I’m sure they have an actual name) being the last to ease up. Of course, they are the most painful bit too! As each part of the muscle eased up and started to loosen up I would thank it and then have a word to the next part to do the same. After 4kms the last muscle finally relaxed enough for the pain to go away. I could still feel the tightness but had no more pain!

It was also bloody hot. Even at 7am it was hot and the sun burned! I have some very interesting tan lines on my back and shoulders now, and was lucky just to have a few burnt spots. They had drink stations every 2.5km which was perfect and each station was always really encouraging. On the way there, and then on the way back the 50km and 30km runners were starting to come back so I got a few smiles and nods and encouraging words which is always so nice.

At around the 6km mark there was a giant set of stairs and a hill (up the stairs – down the hill there, up the hill – down the stairs back) which just seemed like some kind of cruel and unusual joke. I can’t image running over 40km or 20km (for the 50km and 30km runners) and then having to run up that hill and down the stairs. The hardest part was actually getting down the stairs as it’s such a different motion to walking and I have bad balance at the best of times! But, I made it!

The view from the top of the hill to one of the gorgeous beaches I passed.



Bloody stairs!

Half way! woohoo!

At around the 4km to go mark my back and feet started to hurt, I could feel a blister on my toe forming and the arch of my bad foot was aching with every step. I really slowed down and all I kept thinking was that each step was getting my closer to the finish line and closer to being able to sit down. Finally, I rounded the bend and saw the finish banner!

I was happy with my time too as I wanted to beat 3 hours, and beat the time I did the last time I completed 15kms which was in February this year. I achieved both!

Finish time! And I wasn't last :)

 

The finish line!

A few others firsts – my first ice bath! So cold, yet so refreshing! The hardest thing about the event was walking past all the beautiful beaches and not being able to go jump in!  But after the ice bath and some recovery time I ran straight into the ocean for a quick dip!


Into the ice bath! Super icy!



Into the ocean!



After doing all of that on 4 hours sleep (I’m an 8-9hours per night sleep kind of girl) I was exhausted. I tried to stay awake that afternoon but at around 3pm was nodding off on the couch so went off for a nap for a few hours. And I still managed to go to bed early and sleep right through the night.



Sooooo tired at the end!

Finish time and calorie burn!



Since then I have been sore and just tired tired tired. But I loved every minute of it! Wonder what the next crazy idea I’ll have will be!

My superstar cheerleader, Kate aka CocoGirl!