Woman on a Mission!

Well,  #1 -  2 days late to tell you about weigh in.  Not that I really want to, because I remained the same. No weight lost... but on the plus side, no weight gained.  I know what I did, or did not do to cause this.  I ate a few things I shouldn't have, I didn't weigh or measure my food, and had too many excuses for exercise that I let get to me.... However, I think I now know how to maintain my weight when I do get to the ideal weight.

#2.. Easter, not being religious, really only means chocolate and public holidays to me. Easter is otherwise known as HELL WEEK for those of us on a diet (sorry healthy eating regime) and who love chocolate.

I had done very well and resisted all the aisles of chocolate bunnies, and eggs, and Hot Cross Buns for weeks, then on Thursday,... well my resolve... it dissolved. 

1 tiny little 10g egg... I told myself "one won't hurt", but I know better, I know that "one won't hurt" is a lie because it's like opening flood gates.. 1 egg, turned into 2, ... then two little bunnies, then 2 more eggs (50g this time)....Argghh.

Easter Bunny came to work

these little devils wore me down

Nutrition wise, the day went severely downhill from there, although enjoyment factor was great. What with Celebratory work lunches, and work meeting and farewell drinks at the pub, followed by a missed bus, which caused me to have to miss my kickboxing class and have to go back to the pub to wait for a ride home... 3 beers and a pub meal later, I felt like the day was a complete failure.

But... we are in Week 8 of 12. One bad day (or good day if you see it that way) does not undo all that great work.

I am determined not to weigh the same next Wednesday, I am determined to have a great loss on the scales this week.... and i'm gonna work my butt off to make it happen.

As luck would have it ... I have a 4 day weekend, so there is absolutely no excuse to not exercise. 

The Plan :

Today, Good Friday : 

- 1km run (time trial) Burned 88 Calories, took me 6mins 1 sec. 40 seconds faster than 4 weeks ago.

- Zumba Class, 603 calories burned.

- Ate clean - took the kids to the movies even, and didn't get popcorn or anything.

Tomorrow, Saturday:

- 5km run.  My mate Sandra and I are going to try Park Run

- followed by the remainder of my week 8 fitness test.

- Going shopping to buy 1 Easter egg each for my kids... thats all, and maybe try on some smaller clothes while I'm there.

- Coming home to pull weeds out of the garden, and if that doesn't burn mega calories, I don't know what will.

Easter Sunday:

- Gonna get up early and head down to Burleigh Headland and do the walk, followed by a dip in the sea.  Followed by the rest of garden, if necessary.

Easter Monday: 

- 9.30 am Zumba Class

- Wet n Wild... have you felt the burn in your ass, walking those stairs to the slide?

- 6.30 pm Kickboxing Class

I have new focus, and with time to plan and organise, I will eat super clean, and come weign in wednesday, I am hoping to see that number start with a 7.

I am a Woman on a Mission!

Welcome to the Eighties

Weigh in Wednesday...... Drum roll please!  

That's a loss of 1.9kg this week. Happy Happy Joy Joy!


I felt so wonderful this morning and that has lasted with me all day.
That number also means I am only 1.7kg away from being Overweight... as in moving out of the Obese BMI range, into the Overweight BMI range. That is pretty big, because I have been obese since ... well the 1980's. 


Another wonderful thing that happened today was my walk to the train station.
The walk usually takes about 1hr 13min, (I'd done it twice so thats the average between the two) and my timing on the first day - leaving about 5.45am - meant I  arrived about 6.55-7am, and had to wait until 7.32 before the next train, and then a 15 min wait for the connecting Bus, meaning I got to work at 8.20, not leaving a lot of time to shower and get ready for work.
Last night I discovered that there was a 6.45am train... so I tried to leave 10 mins earlier to be able to make that train.  Ah, nup, didn't happen - still walked out the door at 5.45am


I thought to myself, if I can pick up the pace, and get there within the hour, I can still get that earlier train, and get to work much earlier, and have a really good shower, and a leisurely breakfast....So I set of at pace.  
I talked myself through the urge to stop with a lot of C'mons, and You Can Do It's.  All the while in the back of my mind Unhealthy Me was saying "you can always get that second train" ... but Healthy Me hit back with "Yeah, but I don't want to wait 45 mins for it" and kept going.  I was extremely focused, I actually felt like an athlete.


I had the Run Keeper Iphone App, talking in my ear, telling me every five minutes how far I had come, and my average speed per kilometre. Yesterday I was averaging 11.5 mins per km, today I was averaging 9.5 mins per km... So you will be pleased to know it took me  59.38 minutes, and I literally took my back pack off, and sat down at the platform as the train pulled up. 
 I DID IT! and you could not wipe the smile off my face.
I burned 711 calories, but most amazingly I cut 11 minutes off my time.  I was so incredibly proud of myself.


Also today, my manager put on a special day at work, by cooking crepes for the team for lunch... With the massive variety of fillings available, from Ham and Cheese to Berry Compote and Ice cream with Chocolate topping,  I had crepes with spinach, mushrooms, onions, with a tiny bit of ham and grated cheese, and as I ate, I added my calories onto My Fitness Pal. I was happy that I didn't miss out, I just made sensible choices and accounted for everything.


Coming home late tonight, nothing was organised for dinner, so I stopped at the Supermarket.  This would have (in the old days) resulted in some cardboard Pizza or something equally as nasty (convenient, but nasty).. tonight, this was our meal, coming in at less than the 300 calories budgeted for my dinner.

It was yummo, and going to be on the menu again!

News, and more News

I haven't really got time to blog today... I left the house at 5.45am, walked 6.5km to the train station, took a train and a bus to work, showered and changed, Worked all day (more about that in a minute) bus and train home, 10 minutes to get changed, off to Zumba, Wicked Zumba class, call in to drop off some stuff my Son on my way home, get talked into giving him a lift to town, finally get home at 9.15pm.  Just had a shower, eaten my chicken salad that my daughter made (my daughter that I didn't actually see for more than 10 minutes) and watching the Biggest Loser (recorded)... as soon as it's over, I've gotta go pack my bag for tomorrow, then I'm off to bed... I AM EXHAUSTED!  
I am so looking forward to weigh in tomorrow... I feel so close to breaking into the 80's...it's gonna happen this week.  When I get to 89.9 it is a few milestones in one. 89.9 means #1, getting into the 80's, #2, 10kg lost since I started this journey in August, when I started Zumba, and started enjoying exercise (it's still mind boggling)!  It also means that I will have lost 10% of my body weight since then as well. 

Today was a Super Session for exercise ... my walk to the train station smashed out 843 calories.  An increase from my practise, probably because I had a backpack of my work clothes & shoes, towels, toilet bag, and Lunch... it wasn't light. 
Followed by a Zumba session tonight, I upped my intensity, and smashed out 702 cals... a Total of 1545 calories burned in one day!  Woo Hoo!


And another little win for me today, as the last day of the month at work, it can get intense. Management puts on some goodies to #1 thank us for the months work, #2 to keep us going through the busiest day of the month..

This is an example of some of the goodies that were on a table right outside my office door.  I couldn't go to the loo, the printer, or the water cooler without passing these tempting morsels, but I am proud to say that I did not eat a thing from table!  There was rocky road, and starbursts and sooooo many chippies... but I said No.!


Lastly, tomorrow is February - and my cousin, and friend, and 12WBT team mate Melissa Howell, decided today to commit to walking/running 100km over the month of February - and even though we live in different countries, I am joining her on this extra challenge.  Hopefully fine weather tomorrow, so I can knock off 6.5km on day 1!


Weigh in tomorrow... can't wait... see you then.

TWO BIRDS...ONE STONE

Well some things are sent to try us, best laid plans... and all those clichés.  After the events of the past few days I found myself in a bit of a pickle.


#1 My car broke down on Monday,  and the decision has been made to retire the poor old thing. Replacement will be some time coming, so it's public transport for me.  This means I needed to get my husband to drive me to the train station to catch the 8am train, and he had to hang around until at least 8.20 until he could drop the girls at school. Not ideal. He didn't mind, but I felt Guilty.  Having to leave earlier than when I was driving, I found I didn't have as much time to do my walks in the morning, and get ready for work.  I could catch the 6.30 train and go to the work gym (which is not as scenic as walking the lake), but I would then need to get my husband up at 6am to take me.. More guilt, or  I could get up earlier than 5.30. I was already struggling with 5.30 but this was going to have to be the way.


#2 Then Wednesday brought torrential rain, and the Gold Coast started to flood. Our house was fine, but my beautiful lake rose and rose, and the water engulfed the path. Now my morning walk/run is out as an option, so it's going to have to be early train, or a home workout followed by the inconvenience to my family. 

My hubby and Daughter standing on the path where I normally start my run.

Then driving back from Westfield Helensvale today , which is also where the train station is located, it dawned on me... How long would it take me to walk to the train station in the mornings?  Instead of walking around a lake, I can walk myself to where I need to be!  Makes sense!  I can solve two problems with one walk.  I am lucky enough to have showers at work, so I can get ready there.


So I decided that this afternoon I needed to do a test run, to see how long the walk would take me, so then I can figure out when I would need to leave to catch each train.  My husband guessed it would take two hours, I thought an hour and a half, Google Maps said 1 hour 20mins... so I set of on my misson.

I took the direct route, without footpaths in some areas, but there is a 400m longer paved alternative. I didn't stroll, this is a workout as well, and I sat down on a bench at the train station 1 hour and 11 minutes later. Sweaty, happy and 720 calories burned.

I'm so proud of myself for not letting excuses (that would be so easy to find) get the better of me, and finding an excellent solution.
Now I just gotta go pack my bag for tomorrow (work clothes, shoes, towel, toilet bag etc) and tomorrow I start day 1 of my new routine. 
The only other problem I foresee is how the other commuters are going to feel about  a sweaty and smelly woman on the train and bus.. But hey, that's their problem, not mine. 

Fail to Plan? Then Plan to Fail.

Our Overseas guests have arrived, My two weeks annual leave has started, now the challenge to find time to exercise, and eat the correct things really begins.


Got up at 5am, for a walk around the lake with Mel. Now on with the day.


We will be spending today at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, which luckily means quite a bit of walking around, but it also means I have the dilemma of what to eat.


The old me would have probably headed of without breakfast, and then just had a plate of wedges or something when I got really hungry, grabbed a bag of chips, a coke and a choc bar when really started to fade, then after a fun day out I would've said to my husband, "I'm too exhausted to organise dinner, how about we drive through Macca's on the way home".
As pathetic as it sounds, it is accurate... and freaking expensive! 


Where I fall down is my failure to plan in advance.  When I haven't organised and already made definite decision as to what will be going in my mouth, I choose whatever is around, which is generally high in fat, low in nutrients, and expensive because I am paying someone else to prepare it for me.  Yes that is right, paying someone to feed me crap... all because I was too unorganised.




The new me however has planned for our day out.

• I have packed my water bottle.
• I have made a Quinoa Salad, and packed 9 forks.
• I have made some mini fruit salads to share.
• I have snaplock bags containing rice crackers.
• And because we will have 5 children on today's adventure, I have packed a 6 pack of juices.

We have all had a good breakfast before heading out, and I have set up the Slow cooker to be ready when we get home.


Now I am planning to Succeed!  FAIL is not a word I am allowing in my vocabulary today.