Almost got me!

Last night was the closest I've come to skipping a training session. Poppy, my 4 year old is sick again, which meant is she couldn't go to Kindy yesterday, which meant I couldn't go for my run with the girls. Trent told me in the morning that he'd switch his training around and do a wind trainer set at home at night so that I could go to the gym after dinner.  All good.

Only problem is of course, by the time after dinner comes around, I really don't feel like going. So we're sitting at the dinner table eating and I mumble that I really don't want to go and do a run. Trent looks at me and asks why not. I'm just really tired and couldn't be bothered. He suggests exactly what I want to hear 'why don't you stay home, have an early night and do a double session tomorrow'. Music to my ears! S I decided thats what I'd do. Make it a rest day and do a run in the morning (instead of just a walk) and weights in the afternoon.

Dinner finished, Trent went upstairs to put Poppy to bed and I was left to clear away the table. Sitting at the table by myself, I started chastising myself: don't be so lazy, just go and get it done, if you miss this session the snowball will happen, one of your goals was to not miss any sessions, etc.........

Within 10 minutes I had dinner cleared away, dishes done and had changed into my running clothes. It was by this stage 7.15. With a 15min drive to the gym that would still give me enough time to get a decent run in and if I hurried, I could get there by 7.30 and watch Big Brother while I ran! Bonus (yes, as I said yesterday, I am sad).

So I have kept my rule of not missing any sessions which I'm really proud about. I must admit that if I wasn't doing this challenge, there is no way I would've gone last night. Guess its a good thing I'm doing the challenge!

To make my decision to go last night even more worthwhile, we had the worst night EVER with Poppy. She slept from 7.30 till 10.15 and then the coughing started. She coughed for 3 hours straight! We tried everything! So no Kindy again today which means no walk this morning and no gym this afternoon. Trent has a function at work from 5.30-7.30 so he won't be home until at least 8. He has said he'll come home early so that I can go to the gym but that makes me feel really guilty. So I told him not too. But I have a feeling he will anyway because that's the type of guy he is-supportive of me 100%.

So today I need to do something at home so that its not a wasted day. I dont have any equipment so I think I'll do an absolute blitz on my abs. Fellow challenger Carmen just posted an abs workout on Twitter so I think I'll give it a crack. Will see how it goes! Thanks Carmen!

Summary: I am super proud of myself for going last night. I'm continually amazing myself and learning so much about myself. I actually never realised how stubborn, persistent, determined I am. Yeah I've run a marathon and everyone says how that's such a great achievement and you have to be so disciplined and committed but I never really saw it like that. It was just a goal I had and the fear of not doing it was enough to get me out there running. But this challenge is different. I really, really want this. No one has had to push me to go train, or encourage me to make good nutritional choices. I just do it. I am so single-mindedly driven to get the body that I know I can have, that I am doing everything I need to do. And the results I have so far are just giving me even more desire to keep going and absolutely smash it. I guess my stubbornness, persistence and determination make this a challenge that suits me perfectly!

Maxine's challenge - week 4 - body fat numbers

So here are my numbers from body fat calculator today with my PT!!!

Awesome results! Points I am taking from it are:

• Current weight of 47kg. Thats a Loss of 6kg - I do not want to lose much more weight so going to need to think about perhaps increasing my nutrition a little and not increasing the amount of cardio I am doing. Trainer suggested including some eggs to breakfast so I'm going to try it - oats, coffee, shake and eggs on toast! My goodness!!! That's an awful lot of food! Might need to get up 30mins earlier o I have time to eat it all ;)
• 5% loss in body fat. Currently sitting at 17%. I was really hoping it would be under 20% so I'm really happy with that! Need to check what my goal % was at the beginning of the challenge - may need to reassess.
• Lean mass weight has gone down a bit so need to build more muscles!

I also spoke to my trainer about where to from here. We are going to start a split program as Maxine's have suggested. It will look something like this:

• Monday - shoulders and chest
• Tuesday - legs
• Wednesday - cardio (1hr easy run)
• Thursday - morning walk, afternoon whole body weights
• Friday - cardio (1hr easy run)
• Saturday - back and biceps
• Sunday - rest or easy cardio

This should see my gym time actually shorten to 45mins each day. Will take a bit to get my head around that idea. I was thinking that with 8 weeks to go I need to be doing more - spending more time in the gym and doing more cardio. But doing much more cardio won't be beneficial for gaining muscle and will possibly result in me losing too much weight.

My trainer has also done up an abdominal program for me. We didn't have time to go through it today so will do it next week. I'm looking forward to seeing it because I hate doing ab work and its always the thing that I conveniently don't have time for! So hopefully having a program specifically for core work will hold me more accountable.

5 days left of my push-up challenge. After doing shoulders and chest this morning I am SO thankful that today is a rest day for that challenge! Need to put some thought into a challenge for next month!

Maxine's challenge - week 4

Getting there!

Awesome day!

LOOK AT MY BACK!!!! I HAVE MUSCLES!!! 

Just a tad excited ;) Imagine what I'll be like when my 6 pack arrives!

Lots of photos today and that's because I've had an AWESOME day!

1. Killer whole body session at the gym with my husband as spotter. 

• Bench press 8 x 20kg, 8 x 25kg, 6 x 30kg
• cable flies 3 x 8 @ 23kg
• weighted squats 8 x 40kg, 8 x 50kg, 8 x 50kg
• weighted lunges 3 x 16 with 10kg db
• db rows in plank position 3 x 16 with 10kg
• lat pulldowns 8 x 30kg, 8 x 30kg, 8 x 36kg
• seated row 8 x 30kg, 8 x 30kg, 8 x 30kg
• ab twists with 10kg plate (3 x 30)
• woodchop with 10kg plate 3 x 20, 10 each side)
• assisted chin ups 2 x 5 (Trent holding ankles)
• leg press 3 x 8 with 120kg

With my husband there, I loaded up the weights and really worked hard. My shoulders are wrecked now! Also had him take some pics of me - I am super stoked with the way my back and shoulders are looking. It has given me a real lift and I am so inspired to keep going and get even more muscles!

2. Awesome nutrition - stir fried chicken, veggies and brown rice for lunch and made enough stir fry for dinner as well. Had my first double choc Maxine's bar and it was delicious! And I'm still having the long blacks with just a dash of milk. So killing it nutrition wise!

3. Finished off the afternoon with a lovely 50min walk. Was beautiful out in the sunshine and a great way to have a double session Saturday. And my little girl Matilda kept me company which was great. Suffering from some shin splints in my right shin today. Perhaps a result of my increased km's running this week. Always worse when walking but not enough to stop me.

Just a really great day all round. Second time this week that I've been able to do 2 sessions in a day and its great! Stepping things up now. Bring on the next 4 weeks!

The week that was

I'm feeling really good about my week. Although I've been pretty tired and negative (see last post), when I look back over the week I've actually done really well.

nutrition has been spot on. The only thing I have changed up is the night time protein shake. I cut it back to a half shake a couple of weeks ago and there have been some nights this week that I haven't had it at all. I'm not sure about this. I don't think I need to drop the calories and I feel like it does help with my recovery. So I'm going to make sure I have that shake.

Perhaps the most significant change I made this week was cutting milk out of my coffee. I know have a long black with just a dash of skim milk. Eventually I will drop all the milk but baby steps!

Training has been great! 

Sunday - 10km run

Monday - full body weights

Tuesday - PT - weights

Wednesday - 8.5km run

Thursday - 45min walk in morning + full body weights in afternoon

Friday - 8km run on treadmill

I have also been doing my push-up challenge which has increased to 90 push-ups today. And each night I have done some ab crunches, reverse crunches, oblique crunches and planks in front of the tv! 

So it's no wonder I'm feeling a bit tired - that's probably the biggest training week I've had to date.

Next week we move into the second part of the challenge. I've asked my PT to give me a new program on Tuesday and I'm going to talk to him about the suggetrain split training program Maxine's have provided. He is also going to do up an abdominal program for me AND were going to measure my body fat! First time since I started! Nervous and excited about that!

Measurements and photos on Sunday morning - cant wait!

I'm going crazy!

My mind is playing tricks on me!!! I think I'm going crazy!!!

I am constantly finding myself swinging between 2 opposing thoughts. At times I feel like everything is going well. I'm looking better in the mirror, the fat layer is disappearing and I'm getting some muscles.

Then at other times I feel like nothing is changing, all I can see in the mirror is the flabby bits and begin to doubt that they'll ever go away. I've been feeling like this a lot for the last couple of days. As a result, I've tried to increase everything I'm doing - more cardio, heavier weights, more ab/core work at night. 

Then tonight I get the voice of reason from the other couch - my ever supportive husband. He tells me that I'm doing well, my tummy is getting smaller, its a slow burn thing, there's still 8 weeks to go in the challenge, I can increase workouts if I need to at 8 weeks, and that I need to trust the process.

All things that I already know but get forgotten in my panic of it not happening fast enough.

i had my first comment today from one of the Kindy mums that I'm looking really good. She commented on how good my legs were looking. My initial thought is that she's just been nice. but perhaps people are starting to notice changes. 

Reading material

Just some light reading from the library!

I'm very interested to have a read of Shannon Ponton's book. I am a big fan of The Biggest Loser and Michelle Bridges is my inspiration. I'd love to have her body! I also like Shannon's training style on the show. Should be interesting reading and am hoping to learn a bit too!

Shannon's website