Task Catch Up

Well seeing as I signed up late, I have a bit of of catching up to do in my pre-season tasks.


#2 SET MY GOALS

Ok, so last time round I had no idea what I was capable of. Didn't quite reach my weight loss goal for the 12 weeks, but absolutely smashed my fitness goals.
This time round I have had to think long and hard about this. 
I have to make them S.M.A.R.T, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Based -  so here goes. 


1 month goals - (by July 1st...if my maths is correct) - and how I am going to do it.

• to have lost another 2.5kg to get down to 76kg (avg 600g per week)
• to run 10km - registered in the Gold Coast Marathon 10km on June 30
• to beat my 5km Run time - Do it in 35mins. Run 5km twice a week.

3 month goals - (at the end of this round of 12WBT - Aug 23-26)

• to get into the Healthy BMI range of less than 72kg (avg 600g per week)
• Climb Mt Warning (Just JFDI)
• to get my 5km Run time down to under 30 mins.  Run 5km at least twice a week.

Mt Warning

6 month goals - (Before December) 

• To get to my ultimate goal of 65-68kg (size 10)  (avg 500g per week)
• Complete 'The Stampede' - already registered (September 8th)
• Go Indoor Rockclimbing (JFDI - Face my Fears)
• Do a Triathlon  - Like Triathlon Pink - Start swimming, and biking 

The Stampede

12 month goals - this time next year

• Maintain my weight - learn how to maintain
• Do the Mini Kokoda Challenge
• Get back to Green Belt level and achieve Purple Belt or higher, and go back to NZ and compete in IKO Semi-Contact Kickboxing event (or similar) Train with my husband and get match fit again.

#4 SAY IT OUT LOUD.
Last time round this task involved a very tearful me, promising my loved ones, myself and Michelle that I would do this, and see it through.  Maybe I didn't really believe it when I said it, but the act of doing it made a difference.  Hearing my kids, husband and parents say how proud they are of me made every little bit of pain worthwhile.
This time there is no video... unless I find time before now and kick-off, but I am still going to make a commitment, right here, right now.


I commit to trying harder to stick to the plan this time around. I promise myself that I will not let silly little excuses get in the way of achieving my goals.  I am so much closer than I ever thought I would be, so I know I can do this. I just need to focus and get on with it, and I am making the commitment to Michelle that I am going to end this round with my Goals achieved, and I will be the best version of myself.


I also commit to my husband, because I know that finding the extra dollars in the budget is tricky, so I need to commit to him that I will make it worth it.

#5 KITCHEN MAKEOVER
All done - just going to get a padlock for the cupboard for when Faith does homebaking.

TASKS COMPLETE






Next up #6 ORGANISE & DIARISE - This one takes time.... Next Blog post. 

JFDI...

Well 2 weeks ago, Round 1 was all over, and I thought I could continue my journey on my own.
Of course I needed to have a little break... I mean I had been working hard for 12 weeks, so a week off was warranted right? and then of course I was heading to Melbourne and even though I wasn't going crazy eating KFC and Icecream or anything, I was not diligently counting calories.
Next week I'll be back on track... Well the next next week came... skipped Monday night kickboxing training, because I was still tired from the melbourne trip, Tuesday - I had to support the cause of the girl at work by buying some chocolate but I did do my Tuesday Zumba class, Wednesday - no exercise, long day at work which meant more chocolate, I'm frazzeld I'll just rest, Thursday.. skipped training again, Friday  thank goodness for Zumba ( because I ate lollies), Saturday Morning planned to do park Run, whoops forgot to print my barcode..... Hmmmm this is not looking good.
So I signed up for round 2. 
My logic is $20 a week, for the additional support, and having the website to put in the numbers, and follow the  plans, is worth it, because it works. I can't be trusted on my own.


Today was a prime example. Like I said I HAD planned to do park run, but when I realised that I had forgotten to print out my barcode, and I have no ink in the home computer, I had been handed the perfect excuse. I did work hard doing housework during the day, but was thinking all day "I should have done some exercise today"... then I sat done this afternoon and logged on to Facebook, and saw a post in my news feed from Calorie king, and then scrolled through a few more pic's in their album, sharing some to my 12wbt groups, and then I came across this one...

...Something in my head said "damn right", and I got up and walked away from the computer, put my running shoes on, grabbed my ipod and went for a run.  AND i rolled my ankle as I went down our driveway, and I still continued! The pain in my ankle was temporary, and the excuse I could have used was too, I ignored it, and ran 5km (39mins) around the lake, and was home just as it got dark.  Really happy that I JFDI.


Now I just need to complete my pre-season tasks and Get Focused.

In other news, the girls and I went to the Lifeline sale this morning. This is the 3rd year we've been. It is amazing. A huge room with thousands of items of second hand clothes at $2 each. We came home with 15 items between the 3 of us.  I tried on a top and bought it, and didn't realise until I got home that it was a SMALL!!!  Last year I was hunting through piles of clothes for anything size 16-18, and was lucky to find anything decent. This year I was treated to a feast of sizes 12-14 and came home with a Jacket, a pair of work pants, a jumper, a cardy, a top, a hoody and a dress....Loving this new life.

12WBT Finale Weekend

Melbourne was wonderful...Cold, but Wonderful.  
We shopped, and saw the sights but the most wonderful part was meeting the other 12WBT girls who we had gotten to know over the FB group sites.
Saturday started with the Group workout at St Kilda, where we 'YES WE' broke the Guiness World record for most people in a Outdoor Group Fitness Circuit with 1165 participants.  It was the most awesome fun, and (just quietly) a freakin' great workout.

12WBT Group Workout

Before

During

After

Then later that evening, was the Finale Party, the 12WBT winners were announced, the Wine flowed freely, the healthy canapes were YUMMMO!!

The friendships we had made online, were cemented in person.

I'll never forget it Ladies, One fantastic day, and I am all inspired again to continue this journey. Some of the transformations I have seen are just astounding, and the inspiration of what I can see is possible... well that was worth the trip!

Me, Cass and Mel on the Red Carpet

Cheers to new friends

Inspirational chance meeting

I'm back from the most amazing weekend... but before I give you the details, I need to share with you a moment I had last night on the plane ride home.


I was in the window seat (row 3) and a lady was sitting in the aisle seat, we had the seat empty between us. We watched the plane fill up, and were both relieved when we discovered that it would remain empty.. just that extra personal space, you know what I mean?
Well this very beautiful (both physically and spiritually) lady, was a bigger lady, but I don't think that she was any bigger than what I used to be. She expressed her secret concern at the fear of only just fitting in the plane seat, and I could relate, it was only this time last year on my trip to NZ that I had that same 'snug fit' feeling.
Anyway we got chatting about why we had been in Melbourne, I told her about Mish and the 12WBT, and the natural follow up conversation of how much lost, how much time, how its done etc etc. 
She then shared with me her reason for being in Melbourne. Her Sister had been in a devastating accident 12 weeks ago. A tree had fallen on her sisters car, and crushed her. She was not expected to survive, but despite the odds she has been in a coma, and slowly recovering, albeit with probable permanent brain damage.  This lovely lady with such a warm caring aura, had been travelling back and forth to Melbourne to visit her sister and help her through her recovery. I could see the emotion in her eyes, and she was fighting off tears as she spoke. 

She explained how her family had been blessed, and never really had any tragic events until this happened 3 months ago, and since then she had more friends and family affected by sudden deaths and life threatening diagnosis. All this stress in her life, and she coped by eating her way through the emotions, and living of hospital cafeteria food, and she had put on 10 kgs.  She was coming to the realisation that recent events had given her a wake up call, and made her see that life is short, and her chance encounter of meeting me and hearing my story had inspired her to do something about it. I gave her my blog address, so she could find out more about the 12wbt if she wanted. 
We shared stories. We related on many levels, from the book she was reading to movies we enjoyed. She was such an incredible human being, someone who volunteers her time to help families in Cambodia. She shared incredibly heartbreaking stories of some of her friends in Cambodia and how they survived the Kmher Rouge.  Such an amazing lady.  It dawned on me that the past 12 weeks had been so different for both of us, but life changing all the same, she saw me as inspirational for my weightloss, and I saw her the same way for vastly different reasons. 
If you can believe it, I left the plane without even getting her name...but hopefully if she does come here, and reads this, we will be able to get in touch, because Angels seated us together for a reason.  That one night's conversation may have been it, and if that's it, well it stirred something in me for sure, but I'd like to think there was more.

Here We Go... Melbourne Finale

In 12 hours i'll be boarding my flight to Melbourne, to meet up with my girlfriends Mel & Cass, and meet all my new 12WBT online buddies in person.

Mel and  I will be experiencing a bit of Melbourne on Thursday and Friday, and Saturday it's all on...  9am we will be at St Kilda, getting all hyped up, and playing pre-workout games, before the Group Workout with Michelle Bridges at 11am.  


Then Saturday night its the Finale Party, where we will all be dressed to Sparkle. The 12WBT winners will be announced, we will eat canapés and drink champagne,dance the night away and get to meet The Biggest Loser winner Margie.

I'm off to finish packing... will post the photos when I get back.

Preseason Task 2 – Take 2

Get Real - No More Excuses

I am going to follow the program again, this time on my own, and see how I go.

Now is the time to take full responsibility for myself, my body and how I think.

It’s time to reflect on how I see myself, and any self-sabotaging habits I keep.

No one else can get me my results. Only I can do this for myself.

I’ve got to let go of my excuses.

Michelle says there are 3 types of excuses:

1. Internal Excuses: The self-talk that goes on between unhealthy me and healthy me in my head. For example: I’m too tired, I’m not motivated, I might fail, I’ll look silly.

2. External Excuses within your control: These are excuses driven by external factors but which I still have some control over. For example I’m too busy, it’s too hot/cold, I can’t afford it.

3. External excuses outside of your control: These are external factors that I have absolutely no control over, real emergencies. For example a sick child, family crisis, work crisis. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do to get out of these and yes my training or diet may be affected by them.

The Task

1.    List my excuses below, writing every possible one you can think of into all three categories. It’s excuses I’ve used before and that I am likely to use again.

2.    Write down solutions for each excuse.

3.   Print this out for Healthy me to refer to when Unhealthy me starts throwing out excuse after excuse - answers pre-prepared.

·          INTERNAL

o   I can’t resist junk food

§  Well actually you can. Each moment you choose what you put in your mouth. If you want to achieve your goals, you will be able to say No.

o   I’m too undisciplined to record my eating every day

§  Plan in advance so you don’t have to think and record. Just follow the plan, it’s already recorded.

o   I’m too tired to get up early in the morning to train

§  Get to bed earlier, stop watching mindless TV. You did it for weeks on end before, and once the habit set in it was easy… get back to that.

o   I have a sore hip

§  And it doesn’t actually hurt too much when you are training, more when walking around normally.  Go to the Doctor and get a proper diagnosis and stop using it as an excuse.

o   I haven’t spent enough time with my kids

§  They will get to have you in their lives for so many more years as a result of what you are doing now, do active things together and they will benefit too.

o   I just can’t be bothered today

§  So, JFDI… can you be bothered shopping for size 18 clothes again?? No, I didn’t think so

o   I deserve a rest day

§  Yeah, you do… on Sunday.

o   I’ve lost enough, I can stop now

§  Really?  So why did you set your goal at 70kg, if 78kg was ok? You are not in the healthy weight range yet, and that is what you promised yourself, and your kids.

o   My muscles are sore

§  Yep, that shows you are working them, and they will hurts less the more often you do it, so suck it up.

o   I’m unorganised so I can’t exercise today

·         EXTERNAL WITHIN MY CONTROL

o   Its too hot to train

§  Run on the beach, followed by a swim. Or just swim.

o   It’s too cold to train

§  You’ll soon warm up… wear a jacket until you do.

o   It’s raining

§  Do a DVD or go to the Gym.

o   My train was late so I missed my class

§  Start late… or do a DVD

o   I can’t afford healthy food

§  Be honest, Fruit and veges are cheaper – make from scratch, stop paying for processing.

o   I can’t afford a trainer

§  You don’t need one, you live with one, and you have all the info from last round, plus a million internet pages.

·         EXTERNAL OUTSIDE MY CONTROL

o   I have to work late

§  If you do, you do – eat clean and don’t dwell on it..

o   A family member is sick and they need me`

§  Yes they are a priority, but check yourself… are you using  them as an excuse?

TASK

COMPLETE

Side Effects of weight loss

Well something happened to me tonight that has never happened before... My pants fell down in the supermarket. 
I was on my way home from Zumba... sweaty, and smelly, and decided to pop into Woolies to grab some bread, and I put my phone in my pocket (this was the fatal error).. as I ran through the store, I felt them fall...OMG how embarrassing.  Time to buy a new pair of Zumba pants I think.

The other side effects that I have noticed which I wasn't expecting when I started this weightloss journey... 

• My shoes fall off - I have gone down a shoe size.. I hadn't noticed that I had gone up one (thinking I was getting older so my feet were getting bigger - but no! My feet were just Fat!)
• I don't need to undo the latch to put my Pandora bracelet on anymore, I can just slide it on.
• I can wear all my rings again
• The 'LBL' that I used to experience, has dropped significantly. 
• My belts don't have enough holes
• My Heart rate monitor chest strap is too loose
• I can put a bath towel around me now... don't need a bath sheet.
• I can half fill the bath, and when I get in, it doesn't overflow.
• I Can squeeze through smaller places
• If my husband needed to carry me... he could.

Other news ...

Sunday is Mothers Day.

So #1... I want to say I love you and thank you to My Mum. I know I have made her proud, and that is the best feeling in the world. It's hard living in another country, but I am thankful for Facebook, blogs, texting, emailing, because they help me feel like I'm not too far away.

Happy Mothers Day to my Nana, and my Mum

#2 ... I finally feel like I have been a good role model for my children.

#3... I am running in the Mothers Day Classic fun run on Sunday, and I asked my family to join me as their gift to me. They are going to do the 4km Walk/run, and I am attempting the 8km... a bit nervous, as I have not run this distance before, but I know that it's just a mental battle I'll be fighting... my body can do it, I just have to convince my mind that it can.

Catch ya later

What now?

I've got to say that now the 12 weeks is over, I'm not relieved... I'm apprehensive.  I am changing my mind every two minutes, do another round... don't do another round... Can I afford another $200 right now?  Can I afford not to? Can I continue this journey on my own?  
I really think I can do it on my own, but the proof is in the pudding (um, low fat, low sugar pudding please).
I mean, last week I was determined that I could carry on the same, but it almost feels like my safety net has been removed and ...eek, now I'm scared.


I need to look at this logically, ... what has changed?  I still have the support of my family and friends, I still have the facebook group of 12WBTers that I did this round with (only some are re-signing up,  the rest are still sticking together because we will always be the "Newbies round 1 2012".  I still want this, and I am closer to my goal than I ever believed possible, I have set more mini goals, and I have all the tools - Ive downloaded all the material, so I have no excuse.  The only thing different is I won't have the official 12WBT website to enter my results and get twice weekly messages from Michelle... so why am I scared?


The only solution is not to think of it as a stop. The last day of the 12-week Program is actually both the finish and a starting point. Tomorrow I will start a new 12 week challenge, and follow the same program (including the pre-season tasks) on my own, and If I feel like it was too hard on my own, I will sign up for round three. 

Just now I got an email from Michelle!! Telling me I am in the top 8% of those doing round 1, 2012. OMG how did that happen? 
Melissa, Cass and I are heading to Melbourne for the finale... imagine if I actually came somewhere?  I never thought I'd have a chance at a big prize, so it was never a big motivating factor, but maybe... just maybe there is an inkling of a chance. Maybe I'll winner Blogger of the Round !

I am lucky that I have been following 'The biggest loser' on TV as I have been going through my 12 weeks, and sadly this series is coming to an end as well. It's very inspirational to watch people fighting the same demons as you, and quite comforting to see them when they do struggle because you relate. 
I recently watched the episode where they walked up the mountain, and each each checkpoint they added the weight they lost at a particular week, and they finish the walk carrying the same weight as they did on day one.
I tried my own version of this - I filled my backpack with 2 x 4kg kettle bells, and 5 x 2.5kg weights totalling 20.5kg, (slightly less than what I have lost) and my god!...... I could hardly lift the thing.  I can't believe I was carrying that amount of weight on my poor bones.  It was a really worthwhile exercise, just to feel that weight.
I've Loved watching this series of The Biggest Loser... nothing to do with The Commando, honest.

Anyway, the purpose of this blog post today, was to say... I'm not stopping.  The blog will continue....  
See you soon.

The Final Weigh In

Here we are Week 12 of the Michelle Bridges 12 week Body Transformation Challenge... so has my body transformed in 12 weeks?  Well you can be the judge...!  But first, let me share with you the stats


Official Starting weight of the 12WBT at week 1 was 88.1kg - having already lost 4.9 kg on the preseason weeks, and 11.8 kg in total since July/August 2011, I wasn't sure what to expect but I set a goal of 10kg to lose over the 12 weeks. 


Final weigh in this morning and I weighed in at 79.0 kg.
An official loss of 9.1 kg (10.3%) on the 12WBT and the loss on which I will be judged for the competition (not that I think I really have a shot when I see some of the amazing women on the forums and FB pages)
I have lost a total of 38.5cm off my body... actual results below.

I still have my fitness test to perform, and my Major Milestone to achieve (which is why i am confused that final weigh in is now, and not next week) but it is what it is, and I can accept that. 
Anyway here is the absolute moment of truth... I am being brave here, so I have to warn you, that even though the 12 weeks is over... MY TRANSFORMATION IS NOT YET FINISHED, so please bear that in mind if you continue to scroll past this warning / disclaimer.....

Week 1      vs     Week 12