Weigh In 2/7/11

Okay so I had weigh in on Saturday and it didn't go according to plan.  I had, had a good week up until Thursday when a friend invited me out to dinner.  I thought okay- you know I've had a good week.  I've only used 10 Propoints out of my weekly stash of 49, I'll make a positive choice and it will all be fine.  Boy was I wrong!

I got to the Coffee Club and ordered diet coke- no Propoints, and grilled chicken on turkish bread with lettuce, tomato and some kind of sauce was on it.  This would have to be one of the healthiest things on the planet!  But at weigh in I gained 0.9kg.  I couldn't believe it.  I thought I've worked out hard, I've ate well.  But this lesson has showed me that I can't do this so close to my weigh in day!

Gain

Tracking this week

Tracking

Tracking

I left my meeting not feeling at the good about myself.  Just disappointed and frustrated!  But then I had an epiphany and thought, Look- you are the only one that can change what happens from now into the future- There's no point feeling upset and down about what's happened, shut the door on it and move on.  That's exactly what I have done.  I've had a good weekend and will have an awesome week!

Now its time to forget about that week and focus on moving forward and having a kick ass week this week!

Weigh In 25/6/11

So today came weigh in day again.  I weigh in on a Saturday morning, I just find that during the week I am too busy with work and training, and weighing in Saturday morning also gives me a motivating start to the weekend.  Anyway for those of you that weigh in Friday, Saturday and online users even Sunday, do you find that your working week flies by?  Mine goes so fast I look at my tracker thinking Day 5, hang on thats Wednesday!! Where did that week go to!  It just seems to sneak up on us quite quickly!

Today I had weigh in and lost another 1.5kg! I couldn't believe it, I knew that I had, had a good week, I had trained 4 days (was sick the rest) and tracked everything I ate.  But to pull 1.5kg I was over the moon, which now takes my total loss to 11.7kg in 8 weeks!

Todays weigh in!

To reward myself for getting such a massive number I bought a new cook book at the meeting, so I'm looking forward to trying out some of the new recipes!

Now onto a new week.  I have planned all my meals and am scheduling in exercise, I have just noticed right now that my surgically repaired knee is coming up bruised and a little swollen

So I am just icing it down at the moment and will see how it pulls up in the morning- might end up doing an early morning swim instead of a walk / run.  Hopefully its nothing serious- might just be over use, but we'll rest and ice it and see what happens!! Fingers crossed

Hope everyone has a fantastic week- remember to track, make good choices and think positive and you will achieve your goals!

My Week - 12th June Week 24

Winter Tweak and Eats

Modify your favorite winter meals to make them satisfying winter warmers.

A salad or sandwich might be great for lunch in summer, but as the weather cools down; its nice to warm up main meals.  With a little planning, learn how you can bring a little winter warmth to each meal time

Breakfast-  Try warm porridge drizzled with honey or heat milk before adding it to your wheat biscuits.  If you have the time, sit down for hearty poached eggs on grainy toast or if you're in a hurry grab some raisin toast with WW Canola Spread on the way

Lunch- Grill vegies like pumpkin, sweet potato and carrots with a spray of olive oil, or add some warm chicken or boiled egg to usual tossed salad.  Grill or toast sandwiches with warm ingredients like, chicken, roast beef or bacon for a filling edge.  

Dinner- Go for your favorite winter warmers, but tweak the ingredients to make them healthier.  Chicken stock or low fat sour cream are great in mashed potatoes instead of cream and butter.  Roast or bake meats meats instead of grilling and bake or puree vegetables into a hearty soup.  

Whats your trigger?
We all have trigger foods- the snacks and treats that challenge our willpower.  One solution is to remove the temptation by clearing them out of your kitchen cupboards and replace them with Propoints value friendlier options.  

- Low fat hot chocolate for regular hot chocolate
- Maple syrup to drizzle over warm popcorn
- Weight Watchers cookies to dunk in your tea or coffee
- Instant soups for a hot mid meal snack
- SPC fruit snack tub with a dollop of warm custard

June is a great month for beetroot, broccoli, Brussel spouts, cabbage, carroys, cauliflower, celery, fennel, leeks, onion, parsnips, potatoes, pumpkin, silverbeet, spinach, sweet potato and turnips

Natural Winter Sweeteners
Weight Watchers dietitian Emma Stirling shows us how to make the most of the winter fruits on offer

In the nutrition stakes fruit is way up at the top of the list.  It's one of the most nutrient dense food groups packed with an array of essential vitamins and minerals for glowing good health.  

As a food group fruit makes a significant contribution to our vitamin C, beta carotene folate and potassium intakes.  However, it's the dietary fibre content that fills us up and can boost weight loss efforts, that's one of the reasons why all fresh fruit and most vegetables now have a Propoints value of zero.  

Winter Wonderland

We tend to eat more fruit as dessert in the winter- think pies, crumbled and stewed apples.  Just keep in mind that when fruit is juice, dried, processed or cooked often the skin, seeds and dietary fibre are left behind with some essential nutrients and antioxidents.  At the same time the natural sugar content becomes concentrated and the water is removed.  If you add sugar or honey remember to count the Propoints value.  

Fast Indoor Fitness
Weight Watchers exercise consultant Allan Bolton shows us how to get the most from a 15 minute indoor workout

With shorter days and less daylight, it can be hard to find 45 minutes of straight exercise time outdoors.  Home exercise can be a good alternative to keep your fitness ticking over during winter.  It requires little equipment and you can exercise when you want to.  

The key to optimising a 15 minute workout is to turn the intensity you.  The best way to do this at home is to include the principals of interval and circuit training.  Include hula hooping, exercise DVD segments, box jumps / step ups, skipping etc.  But getting in possibly 2 15 minute workouts each day will help you stay ontop of your fitness and weight loss.  

All you need to do is warm up at a moderate pace, then as you feel comfortable up the intensity to a peak and then ease the intensity down for a few minutes at the end.  Of course if you choose to, you can extend your workout for 20 minutes, 30 minutes or however long you have

Here's an example 15 minute workout plan:
1 minute step ups / box jumps ( lead with the right leg)- easy pace- 1 minute each leg
2 minutes of Zumba DVD- pick a favorite track - moderate pace
2 minutes hula - hoop- moderate pace
2 minutes rope skipping- higher intensity- double unders if you can do them
1 minute step ups - (lead with with the right leg)- lead with right leg - 1 minute each leg
1 minute rope skipping- higher intensity
2 minutes hula - hoop- moderate pace
2 minute of Zumba DVD- pick a favorite track- moderate to easy pace

 

Self Esteem

So I was reading this blog post about self esteem and how it can make us ugly people.  Generally I don't have the best self esteem, due to alot of things that have happened to me over the years and the non- supportive family that I have.  Well I shouldn't say totally unsupportive- they support what I am doing with Weight Watchers, but if it looks like I'm eating too much food- which I know I am not, because of how my weight loss is going I mean come on, I've lost 9.1kg in 5 weeks! I must be doing something right!!  But my mum always cooks my meals for me while I'm working.  So thats really all the support they offer.  

I often get told that "somethings not right with me" or "I need to see a psychiatrist", which isn't something that a supportive person should be giving out to people especially their daughter.  They often say that I have an angry out look on the world, and that its no wonder I don't have a boyfriend.  

I mean yeah I can get angry at people and myself, but so do a lot of people.  Let's look through the checklist:

Do I have anger? Yeah
Do I have joy? Yeah
Do I have love? Not in my life right now
Do I have laughter? All the time!
Do I have trust? Well, I have issues with that one.  I do trust only around 2-3 people in my life. 
Do I have fear? Yes
Do I have disappointment? Yes

Why do I have all these?  Because I'm human.  I'm not a non emotional alien from another planet!   We all have atleast some of these issues.  I do get angry at my immediate family, mainly because they think they are helping my harrassing me, but infact they are just making things worse.  The constant harrassement and persistent bothering are just not what I need and unfortunately they don't listen to what I want.  


Self esteem for me is a constant battle but at the moment I feel like it's a battle that I'm winning.  I went out to a Salsa Club this past weekend, all dolled up in a dress that suits my body shape right now, hair done and make up on.  I actually felt like such a girly girl, but it was awesome and my friends and even people who I'd never met told me how fantastic I looked and how much fun I was having and how happy I looked!  I realised then that myself esteem was at all time high!! I projected out positive and happy vibes because I really was happy!! 


Projection is a massive thing it allows yourself to project to other how truly happy you are.  I will definately be using this tool alot more often!

Since flying on that high, I am back in the kitchen on this public holiday Monday, cooking up a storm with my Goats Cheese, Spinach and Pumpkin Mini Fritattas!

Prepping the pumpkin and the spinach

Adding the goats cheese

Final Product!

10km Run Today

So today I decided it was time to tackle the "big block run".  Which is from my place, down the Northern Rd, down Andrews Rd, along Castlereagh Rd, then up Coreen Ave, til we reach again the Northern Rd, then run along there for around 1.8km - 2km til we reach home again.  

I measured the distance and it was 10km even!  Nice new running track for me!  The last time I ran 10km it took me 2 hours and 10 minutes this was at Norwest.  Today I ran it in 1 hour 40 minutes!  So stoked with how much I have improved.  Its definately all the running and kickboxing its starting to help strengthen the leg muscles, and its getting the endurance / miles in the legs in prep for City2Surf.  Now only 63 days to go!  Time to rip into the training and get the miles in and break in the new shoes and get some running done!

Morphing into a Runner

Now as most of you know I am not a runner I don't generally enjoy it I guess mainly because I was 140kg and trying to run was painful the body and also running out in public with everything wobbling around its not the nicest feeling.  But in saying that I'm no down to 118kg and am no longer worried about what people think if they wanna yell idiotic things or whatever then thats their problem.  I did actually get a few honks on this mornings run, which was kind of nice.  So stoked I got through it though.  

I am going to do Knapsack with Robyn tomorrow which is going to be awesome I can't wait!  I will definately be icing down tonight and tomorrow so my knees will be okay to handle knapsack tomorrow.  

But now since I am running almost everyday now, I am kind of starting to enjoy it (damn it! My physio - the runner said I would start to enjoy it! He was right) But my week started yesterday and I'm already 10km down.  Gonna try and aim for between 15-18km this week and see how we go! 

Bring on Knapsack tomorrow, will post photos soon!

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!!