This Past 2 Weeks or So + Plus City2Surf

So these past two weeks I have been a little up and down.  The week before last I had a good week at weigh in and lost 0.8.  This week I found out I lost my partner and from their everything went down hill.  I didn't care what I ate, I didn't care that I wasn't training, I had pretty much hit rock bottom.  But then I had a bit of a light bulb moment thinking "Why have I gone and done this?  He wouldn't want me to be ruining myself by doing this.  Mind you this didn't kick in til about Thursday and didn't really help me with my impending weigh in on Saturday and I gained around 2.5kg.  Since then I have been really good with my eating and getting back on track with everything!

Today was the day that I had been training for - City2Surf.  Now with everything that had happened I hadn't really done much running leading up to the event.  But I'll talk you through the day (which was just awesome!) and see how we go!

Firstly I was up at 6am on Sunday morning- definately not where I wanted to be on a Sunday- which is usually my day of rest, not usually out of bed before 8.30am and that was a challenge in itself!

Then it was time to get ready.  Money- check, tights- check, singlet-check, bra- check (can't forget that one!), bib- check, and everything was good and I was ready to go!

I don't know I was actually smiling at this house

Then off to the train station for our journey into the city and onto the City2Surf, where I met up with my friend Robyn who isn't the most morning person around, so we got the photo on the train as we were heading in and she fell asleep!!

Robyn and I on the train to City2Surf

We arrived a little bit early, so we thought you know nip down to the bathroom before we start the race, and OMG! The line was huge!  I think about 50 people had the same idea as us!

Then it was a short walk back to the starting line, where we get ready to start our journey from the City 2 the Surf!!

Waiting at the start line

At the start line again- where I look like I've just woken up and Robyn- not a hair out of place for the whole run!!

Me starting to get nervous now!

I love this photo! So beautiful!

 And then before we knew it- we were shuffling our way to the start line!  There was so many people in our group! I couldn't believe it! It was such a made house!  During our journey we definately meet some interesting people!  From Blue Boys, to ladies in PJ's to Super Mario Brothers and Bananas! Only got to grab a few photos, sorry they aren't very clear guys :(

Not a great photo, but gotta love the ladies in the pink PJ's

Hahaha, love this sign, I only got the back half which read, if you have stamina, call me with the guys phone number!!

Ah yes, our good friends the storm troopers!

The Jamacian Bob Sled Team!

Can you find the banana

Sea of people!

Our good storm trooper pal!!

As Robyn and I progressed along the course, I really wanted to take the photos at the 5km and 10km mark, and I was checking the time as I went- I was so happy, because I knocked around 7 minutes off my 5km and around 12-14 minutes off my 10km time!! Check out the photos! So happy!

5km mark

10km mark- only 4k to go!!

 Then by the time we hit Bondi Beach and we got through to the finish, which I was so happy about because by this point I was struggling to walk big time!  We were both hungry and tired so we got the train back to Central and chowed down on well what probably wasn't the wisest food to have, but we were hungry hadn't ate all day and this point almost falling down.  So we chowed down on burger and fries!

Grilled Chicken Burger and Fries

By this time Robyn and I were both pretty much out of it, so we posed for some quick post race medal photos and then we were pretty much both so tired after such a big day, slept most of the way home 

Post race medal photo- see and not a hair out of place!

Post medal phto

And dead after such a big day!

But apart from the sore feet and the blisters.  I had a really awesome day, will definately plan to do it again next year, almost at my goal weight and training for that starts next week, because I don't think I'll be walking for the rest of this one!!!

Week of Reflection and Achievements

So this week for me has been a good week.  Monday was a little bit dodgy because we had a public holiday, but I managed to kick some ass the other 4 days after Monday to pull a 1.1kg loss and finally achieving my first 10kg loss!

Weigh In this week and hit my first 10kg loss

My weight loss from yesterday has really set me in a good focused mood heading into next week.  I never do any exercise on weigh in today, but as soon as Saturday is over and Sunday is in the house- so is exercise.  Today I went swimming this morning and did around 40-45 minutes, which unfortunately due to the chlorine in the morning it leaves me with really bad allergies.   I was just about to crawl into bed this afternoon to try and sleep it off, but next thing Jason rang asking if I wanted to Knapsack, now at first I was a little bit hesistant, I thought I'm already sneezing and about ready to fall asleep, but he was like you'll be find the fresh air will do you good.  I admit I felt better for getting out and doing it but then I got home and the allergies started again!

This week is definately going to be a good week though I can feel it as they say in my bones.  I have got through the weekend, tracking well, made plans to combat the coming week.  I have selected my meals I'm cooking for the coming week.  This week I'm cooking Mexican Beef Pan Fry, which I have actually just finished cooking

Prepping the food

Finished Product- so filling!

The other dish I am doing this week is Italian One Pan Lamb, both these recipes are out of the "Love your food" book that comes with your binder.  

Time to making some more positive changes for the week ahead and continue to do what is working for me as well, which is:

- Training - both incorporating running, swimming and kickboxing
- Tracking- which I'm counting every morsel that goes in between my lips get tracked
- Positive Food Choices- Making choices of healthy foods that are going to assist my with my weight loss
- Focus- Stay focused ton what I want to achieve and work hard towards it
- Support system- Stay in contact with friends who support this decision both on and off facebook and the Weight Watchers Online Community.
- Attend my meeting next Saturday and weigh in and aim for another good loss

What positive changes are you looking to make this week?

Plan of Attack- Week Starting- 11/6/2011

Ok, so I have weighed in for the week just gone and had a good loss of 1.2kg.  Now its time to plan for the coming week

1.  Cooking both selected Weight Watchers Meals
2.  Cook the Pumpkin, Spinach and Goats Cheese Tarts
3.  Schedule in exercise for 6 days with 1 rest day
4.  Clock up 12km worth of running- thats a 2km increase for City2Surf in August

To achieve the first and second goal I have selected there I have left the ingredients out so that I can do them tomorrow once I get back from my run in the morning.  

Goal 3 - I will definately be achieving this goal this week as I will be scheduling my exercise as:

Week Starting 11/6/11
Sunday- Either Knapsack Margarets Lookout / 1 hour swim or big block run (from my house to down Andrews Rd, along Castlereagh Rd, up Coreen Ave and back along Northern Rd)- This will depend on the weather

Monday- If the gym is open I will go early and do 1 hour interval sprints on the treadmill @10km per hour - atleast 30 seconds on til as long as I can go for and 1 minute rest- repeat for 1 hour.  Then Kickboxing Class for 1 hour.  If it is not open then I will Knapsack as long as the weather is fine.

Tuesday- 1 hour run- trying to stay at a steady pace around 7.5-8km per hour on the treadmill for as long as I can then go onto interval training.  Then Kickboxing for 1 hour.

Wednesday - 1 hour run- trying to stay at steady pace for as long as possible.  1 hour Kickboxing

Thursday- I really would like to try and get to a Jam class this week- so if possible I will try and go tonight.  If not, then 1 hour Kickboxing

Friday - 1 hour interval sprints on treadmill @8km to start then working up to 10km per hour for 1 hour.  1 hour Kickboxing. 

Saturday- Is weigh in day- no training- this is the scheduled rest day

Body Image + Your Body

We here alot of people everywhere talking about body image, and what we'd like our bodies to be like.  It seems funny to me that most people are never really 100% happy with our body even when we are fit and lean and healthy.  At the moment me at 119.2kg of course I'm not happy with my body, but I'm not even sure I'll be 100% happy then, but I believe I will be much happier than I am now.  

I mean to be honest, my ideal body would probably be similar to Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider- strong, curvy and sexy, but I know that I will never look exactly like that but I will work damn hard to make sure I become strong, slim and healthy!

A friend had posted a quote on her blog and I'm going to borrow - its says "Love your body- not for what it looks like, but it what it can do and what its capable of doing".  I love this quote- it re-affirms my beliefs that our bodies are capable of alot more than we do to them.  

Instead of being disappointed in the way your body looks now and thinking negative thoughts about it.  Think about how good are you going to look and what you are working to achieve.  Think about what your body does for you in 1 day.  It keeps your heart beating, it keeps you alive, it lets you drive, swim, lift, walk, run, bend, stretch, type.  What would be do with out it?

Next time you start thinking negative about your body.  Stop...rewind and start thinking positive and name 3 things you love about your body.  

Start embracing it for it all it does for you and stop thinking about the negative things.  Start making changes for the positive starting right now!

 

Running Intervals + Kickboxing

So during the day today I had every intention of going home getting changed getting to Jabout early and do some running before class.  Then it got about 4pm and I don't know what came over me, but I just didn't want to do, maybe it was just the cold weather.  It got to about 5.45pm and it was sitting at home twiddling my thumbs thinking - "what I should do" and just thought screw it - I'm gonna go to Jabout kick my ass on the treadmill and stay for the class and I'm so glad I did!  

I ended up doing interval sprints for 3km on the treadmill @ 10km hour started at 1 minute on 1 minute off, but as I started to fatigue it was more like 45 seconds on 1 minute off, but I did that continually til I reached 3km and then stuck around to tackle the 1 hour kickboxing class at 7.  Which I managed to get through, but was flat out on the ground afterwards!!

But I know I definately worked hard today burning 1618 calories in 2 hours of training

Its not a very clear pic- but training time is 2hrs 11 minutes, 1618 calories burned and HR 122BPM

I've run 6km total this week, Lappo says I need to get a 10km week, so I'm thinking either just smash out 4km tomorrow or do 2km tomorrow and Friday, but we'll see how the legs feel tomorrow!!

Mid Week Weigh Ins

Morning Everyone

I was just curious to know your opinions regarding mid week weigh ins.  Know as most of you know I weigh in on a Saturday Morning, but I also usually weigh in on a Tuesday / Wednesday or Thursday just to make sure my body is working well with the foods I'm eating and that the weight is coming off.  

This week has been a good week for me, I've tracked everything I've ate, I've made good positive food choices and I have trained 3 days since Saturday morning not including today.  And the scales say I've lost 600g in 4 days, which to be honest the way I've been eating and training I would have thought I would have lost more!

Mid week weigh in, the scales are around 400g out compared to the WW ones I weigh in on

 Now I know most people would say "Hey! 600g is a great loss you should be really happy with that".  

Well I don't like settling for less when I know I am capable of more.  

I guess I also need to take into account I have had 3 massive weeks of weight loss- so first week was 2.7kg, then 2kg, then another 2kg.  Maybe it is time for my body to catch up, but I'm gonna tracking and working hard to ensure to a good loss!

I have a function tonight so no training, but I'm going to take my dinner, store it in the fridge and eat that instead of the no doubt chips and dip and lollies and probably alot of other unhealthy food they are planning to serve.  I'm am not to going to be weak and give into the bad food, I'm going to stay strong, go shopping early before work and bring some healthy filling choices to tonights event!

Anyway guys I'm looking forward to getting your feedback!

First Session With A New PT

So today I had my first session with my new PT, Viyash.  To be honest I felt like I could have worked much harder, but more about that later.  

So we'll start from the top, which for me means breakfast!! Eggs on toast

Breakfast in full prep

And done!!

Tasted so good, loves eggs for breakfast and because they are low GI, kept me full til 10.45am, and I ate these at 7.30am!! 

Then onto packing the gym bag for the day, as I was heading straight from work to training with Viyash

Shoes and Socks -  A staple of a good gym bag!

Tights....

Singlet.....

My little bible- HR Monitor

Gym Bag Completed and ready to go!

And to put in a full days worth of work before heading to training

Getting ready to head to work for 9 hours

 Time to head to the gym.  I did my first session with Viyash today, it was 3 rounds - squats at 20kg (2x10kg dumbbells - almost like a deadlift with dumbbells), then 10 push ups, tried to do as many on my toes as I could, my shoulders are gone!

Then did bench press with 2x10kg dumbbells for 3 rounds, with 15 air squats in between rounds.  

To be honest I found this very easy this session, the only thing I really struggled with was bench and that's mainly because I hadn't done it in while. I'm going to talk to Viyash about upping the intensity of our sessions, otherwise I might as well just continue training on my own.  

Post Workout Pic

See doesn't look like I'm working very hard does it- time to up the PT training I think!

Running + Kickboxing

Now as most of you know I am not the biggest fan of running, and I guess that its mainly due to the the fact that I am carrying around 120.4kg of weight, which obviously isn't helping- anyway as we know I am doing something about this by attending WW and already dropped almost 7kg.  

So I took myself to Jabout

nice and early at 5pm- the class I usually attend doesn't start til 7pm, but I was feeling extra motivated today.  I did 30 minutes on the bike and pumped out 10km, which I was really happy with.  Now to get down the stairs at Jabout, I have to walk right past the treadmill, and it seemed that I was in for a bit of a show down today with it- it was almost like I was in an old western movie and we were getting ready for a shoot out, but I jumped on, and did 20 minutes worth of 30 seconds of work at 10km and walk for 1 minute and continued doing that for 20 minutes.  I couldn't believe I actually got through it!  It seems to me like the treadmill and I are slowly starting to mend our fractured friendship. 

Then I decided to treat myself - now, now don't panic, it wasn't in the form of food.  I was due for a massage, so I jumped off the treadmill and went to visit Andrew- who is our resident masseuse.  My shoulders and calves were feeling a bit tight, so he dug into them.  Dug being the word, man it killed me calves, but upside, they are now feeling fantastic!!

Then it was time to tackle the 7pm class with Lappo

Lappo

Boxing Gloves!

 Now by this point I had been on the bike, the treadmill, the massage table and I was exhausted!  But I pushed through the class with Alex (new friend).  And finally I was ready to come home take a nice warm shower and relax.  

All though that class definately took its toll on me!

This is after 3 hours of training!

In tonight's session I had managed to burn over 1900 calories, which I reakon was pretty impressive.  See its here on my watch

Training watch- burnt 1909 calories!

I also took some photos of myself and have posted them below.  I mean I knew I was big, but I just kind of look like a bit of a square- almost fridge like- but atleast I am on the track to making positive changes for me for the future! :)

Me at 120.4kg

And from the side at 120.4kg

 I have my first proper PT session with my new PT tomorrow, so excited, nervous, but actually really ready to train hard give him 100%.  

Look out for tomorrows blog post about it!

Weigh In 27/5/11 + Fitness Assessment

Hi Guys

So I weighed in 1 day early this week as I have a pretty big weekend ahead, and didn't want to miss my weekly weigh in.  So I decided to bite the bullet and weigh in nice and early 9am with Ange at the Penrith Meeting.  

Now this week I have been struck down with a chest infection, which is slowly clearing, but everytime I cough I still sound like a pack a day smoker, but its 50% better than it was so... I jumped on the scales and couldn't believe what it told me..............

I lost another 2kg!  I did track diligently including the weekend this past week, but because I didn't train I honestly didn't think I would have pulled such a big number!  I mean 2kg is huge and the past 2 weeks I have had big losses.  In my first week I lost 2.7kg then last week 2kg and now this week 2kg- that's a total loss of 6.7kg in 3 weeks!.  I feel like I'm on fire.  So the way I am following the program and my training must definately be working for me!

But I will definately be back to normal training this week.  I did a 7km bridge to bridge walk today and will possibly swim either tomorrow or Sunday and there will also be a Knapsack in there as well.  

This week was also a great week for me because since I lost the 2kg taking my loss to 6.7kg.  I have reached 5% of my body weight lost.  I started this at 127.1kg.  I am now 120.4kg.  When I realised that I had smashed through my 5% body weight loss, I was so happy and was presented with a book mark to comemerate the achievement with!

My reward for reaching 5% Body Weight Lost!

Then after weigh in I went and did the Bridge to Bridge with my friend Jason, who has been so supportive in my journey. 

Then tonight I had a fitness assessment with PT Viyash which was good.  I did better and somethings and not so good on the other things!! Viyash is going to email me the results, but here is the ones I remember.  Now remember guys I still weigh 120kg.

Beep Test- Level 2.1
Push Ups - 8 (on my toes)
Plank - 35 seconds
Wall Sit - 2min56sec
Sit and Reach - +9cm

For me, these results are just a starting point.  I am going to smash through these next month, when its time to do the assessment again!

Til next time everyone!

Knapsack

Ok, so I generally had a pretty good and productive day I swimming this morning then shopping for fruit (damn how expensive has fruit gotten lately! - anyway that's another blog post!) and got my highlights redone.  Found myself at home about 1.30pm just bored and wanting to eat, so I rang up my friend Jason and suggest we do Knapsack, we both just needed to get out the house and keep our mind off things

Jason

 

 

 

 

So we rock up to Knapsack, and chatting as we normally walking upto the bridge and it was really nice to just chat and have someone listen, especially with everything going on with the weight and the personal life, its a little drama filled right now. 

So finally we get upto the bridge

Knapsack Bridge

Knapsack Bridge - View from the bottom

And there is a few different tracks that we can go down but today we picked our usually hard one with lots of steep steps, but its such an awesome feeling when you get to the top, its one of those tracks that is just brutal especially when you weight 127kg, its very difficult to pull yourself up that track to say the least!!

One set of stairs on the track

 

 

 

Brutal!

These stairs in the pictures were absolutely brutal!  No matter how many times you do these- they do not get any easier!!  Killer on thighs and butt!  But you feel awesome knowing that you conquered it!

One of the stairs we went up

You know your near the top when you see these awesome little rock statues!

Awesome Rock Statues!

Almost near the top!  Promise!

This little one means your less than 200m from the top!

So, so close to the top you can practically taste it!  Just a little more to go and I'm there!

View from the top - how good is that!

And here are some photos as we were walking down the trail

More up hill parts of the trail

Love this trail its so beautiful and relaxing

As much as do love doing knapsack walks and runs and I love being and training outside it is absolutely fantastic. 

Can't wait til the next time I do it which I'm hoping to be next week.  But knees are definately feeling it now and have to ice them down big time

Ice packs at the ready!  Iceing down after knapsack