Day 29

i love reading people's blogs and the comments that are made. I love how you can find new and interesting blogs to hook into and they are generally likeminded people, a passion for fitness, and most you can learn from and draw inspiration and motivation.
I stumbled upon a website of Darla's. I love the food videos and her fitness videos. She blogs everyday (unlike mwah !!) and she is superfit, gorgeous and an oldie like me!! Her enthusiasm is infectious and I always get something out of it. She keeps everything simple, you should check her out.
In saying that, there are soooo many fitness gals out there that i follow daily and i never fail to get something from their blogs. Its amazing how helpful people can be and you don't even know them, everyone wants you to succeed!
So, back to my challenge - Roxie had to pull out due to health problems (wish you a speedy recovery) but i'm going to finish it anyway. Due to Easter I had a couple of hiccups but overall not too bad. My points as of today is 24 and it ends tomorrow. Can I make up the 6 points to get the score I was aiming for??? lets wait and see ......

Day 19

Back on track - yay! However, coz its school hols i'm getting to sleep (or rather lie) in. I'm only working half days. I'm finding it hard to fit all my meals in so my cals are down. Have been eating impeccably since the leftovers disaster, but does the lower cals help or harm? I'm obviously not doing as much during the day, still going to the gym at night so i'm a bit confused. I'm not hungry - still confused!! I'll be happy when the kids go back to school - back to my routine and back to pump classes (just cant get to them in the hols).
Its easter this weekend and i've only got one more chance of a gym session - Wednesday night - as we go away thurday arvo. It's upper turn so i think i'll go real heavy and do 4 x 6 sets - just to mix it up and keep the muscles guessing. I'm thinking of getting calipers. I've seen cheap ones $20 and expensive ones $200 whats the difference? can i get by with the cheap ones? are they accurate? would love some help on this one please !!!!!
goodnight for now!

The Dreaded Kids Leftovers

Day 17 sunday - i thought i survived the weekend but alas, i was watching biggest loser on sunday night and felt a bit restless. the kids were mucking up a bit and generally being annoying. then i heard this noise - it was my name being called out. "Amanda - come get me." So i tracked it down and it was coming from the fridge. "You know you want me, you don't need me but you WANT me!!!!!"
And then *poof* - i was sitting on the lounge eating a jam donut watching biggest loser - *STUUUUUUUUUUUPID, STUUUUUUUUUUUUPID ME*
It was the leftovers from the afternoon tea I had with my girlfriend on Saturday. The donuts were for the kids and stupid me did not throw out the leftovers. So now my challenge points are 26 - NOT HAPPY JAN (Aussie joke).
aarrgghh - i'm soooo disappointed in myself. Why cant i eat to live, not live to eat?? I think this will be a life long struggle for me :(.
Back to the gym tonight......

Dinner

Day 16 - i survived 2 socials - the first being an afternoon tea with one of my best girlfriends and her girls (Brooke's best friends also) at my house. now when i go to her house its a full on spread on the table - and i mean real yummy food. So I had to recipricate. So, nothing as elaborate as her treats but i wanted to make it reasonably healthy. I had jam donuts (for kids), spring onion dip and wholemeal crackers, grapes, fat free salsa and a huge plate of carrot, cucumber, celery strips (should have taken a photo of the veg it was pretty impressive). My friend brought a custard tart. So i made the tea and coffee, we sat down and of course talked a million miles an hour - inccluding diets! I gotta say, all i had was coffee on skim milk and veg stick and a bit of salsa - yay me!
They go and i get ready for a girlfriend's birthday dinner at her brother's restaurant. I drank 1.5 litres of water, no horderves (spelling???)scraped the sauce off the prawns, took the crispy skin off the chicken, left the potatoes and ate lots of veg. The meal was absolutely delicious. I did, however, eat a piece of cake - a beautiful classy icecream cake - gorgeous! I enjoyed it, thought it was worth it and didn't pig out - totally civilised. I will have to take a point off for my challenge - bugger! Came home and had a cuppa. I'm quite proud of myself and it wasn't a struggle.
Here's a pic of me and hubbs. Have a great weekend everyone!

Day 15

This is all i do on my blog now is to drone on about "the challenge" - how boring for you! sorry, but i'm just obsessed about it at the moment and i guess this is like my diary.
In saying that, day 15 was FAB diet wise, however, did not make it to the gym that night. I had to work in the morning, then come home and do things with the kids (being school holidays), we met up with friends and the kids went and saw Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2, did some clothes shopping for them, they went to eb games to spend a voucher they had, drove 1/2 hour home, Brooke packed her bag and i dropped her off to a sleepover, folded 3 loads of washing, put 2 on, cooked dinner and prepped a few more meals for me, went out to the shops to get my girlfriends 50th present (for Saturday night dinner) got home by 7.30 (to watch Biggest Loser) gave up any hopes of the gym as it closes 7pm on fridays (not happy about that) so prepared to watch telly when my son tells me his head is itchy and has nits !!!!!!!!!!! geez, how did that happen?????? so i "listened" to biggest loser while doing the nit thing!!!!
Had a cuppa, watched a couple more shows and went to bed.
Lets see how tonight goes at dinner - wish me luck!

Day 14

Going great guns - managed to get a few more calories in today !!! Heres what today looked like:-

seeya tomorrow!
Amanda

Day 12 and 13

Day 12 - all on track - simple as that!!!!!
Day 13 - started using my journal like Roxie great idea - everything there - hope you can enlarge it enough to see.

Yes my carbs are down - thats on purpose. Cals down a bit but i didnt calculate the 2 cups of veges that i had - a bit hard to do when its a mixed cup of fresh veg. i also didnt calculate my skim milk in tea - should start doing that but i would only have around 100ml in total which is only 35 cals and 5g carbs. Does anyone factor in fish oil caps calories in their fats? there is nothing on the bottle telling me cals so how do you count them?
Great workout at the gym. Feeling good !!!
Now for a good night sleep,
Amanda

Day 11 - back on track

After the pizza incident i'm happy to say i'm back on track! i've taken the kids and a friend of brooke's away to our place down the south coast. Just for 2 days. Hubby back home working. So the gym is out of the question so i did a huge soft sand beach walk instead so i'll count that as my exercise for today. we tend to walk around more when we are down here so i'll count that into my gym allocation.
Proof below

This is me with my eldest - Kurt, aged 13
I've found a journal i used last year and thought i'd start using it again. Roxie uses one for the challenge - great idea, i think i'll do the same, it makes it so much easier and accurate.
Hope you dont mind that i'm copying you Roxie :) I'll take a photo of it and post it on tomorrows blog.
seeya later.
Amanda

Bugger .....Day 10

Bugger, bugger, bugger and bugger!!!!! I cooked not stop for the kids and their mates all day - all they do is eat and i never weakened. Did groceries with my elder 2 (12 and 13) and told them i was on kitchen strike and they had to organise dinner (dear hubby was busy on the lounge *roll eyes* ). So they chose supermarket pizza - it was fresh not frozen - 3 pizzas for $10 - bargain. So we bring it home, they put it in the oven and when they cut it up it looked really good. so i had a piece - surprisingly nice - not oily or heavy.
And then i had another and another (they were only small pieces prob 2" at the wide end. it wasnt a gorge - it was just really nice. So i'm down to 29 points ... bugger!!!!!
I saw a gorgeous girl with a fantastic figure and her boyfriend shopping when i was in the supermarket and she was putting healthy things into their trolley and i thought to myself "i bet you dont have kids at home and have to deal with kids junk and not so healthy food. i bet you dont have to cook for them and try and resist their leftovers and have crap in the pantry". It would be much easier if my kitchen was a 100% clean for when i get the munchies.
Anyway, lets turn this number to the right direction.
Have a good Monday.

Day 9

Wow - what a difference a competition makes!!! I have had so many opportunities to eat crap and earn a penalty point but have stopped and thought "no, i'm in a contest and i'm NOT going to spoil/lose it". It's worked! I even walked into McDonalds and got something for Brooke after cheerleading tonight and I DIDN'T GET ANYTHING!!!! OMG Maccas is my fav takeaway. Sorry to say Roxie, but this is rockin' for me at the moment!!
Plus I did my fortnightly measurements and things are slowing down. I don't know what more I can do. I'm going to be a bag of bones upper half with jiggly thighs and bum downstairs!! *scream*
I put on my last year skinny jeans to wear tonight and they were a bit tight in the wrong places so i'm fatter than what i was last year :(
Ayway, gotta seriously think about this 60 day challenge thing, tweak my workouts - not sure.
Oh, BTW Charlotte - Panadol is Aussie paracetamol (pain killer) you buy at the supermarket!! i keep forgetting the o/s readers lol!
My pillow is calling me!
seeya ...

Day 8

I've been battling a headache all day. Huge day's work as usual. Didn't get around to taking Panadol, just soldiered on. Iv'e come home, done 3 loads of washing, prepped dinner for the fam, carpooled Brooke and her girlfriends to cheerleading practice (they are cheering at Sharks/Manly game this Saturday night at Shark Park!!) and I have 1/2 before I go to pump class at the gym. Still have a headache. Is it wrong to take Panadol to go to the gym? I s'pose I'd take it anyway! I'm doing it - better make it a Panadol Rapid gotta go in 15 minutes.
Cheers!

Day 7 of challenge - even though I only told you about it yesterday

Day 7 and all's well !!!

This is the link to my friend roxie so you can read her side of the story!
I'm taking photos of my meals and will post tomorrow. Pump was awesome last night - can't believe i've never done it before. Off to the gym after Brooke's netball, will do lower and 45 minutes on the tready - hiit.
I'm toying about doing this 60 day challenge that Genie is doing. Cant do the pull ups at home but I was thinking of doing exercises for my trouble spots (a few of my many) and was considering weighted crunches and obliques on the swiss ball, then weighted kickbacks for the glutes and maybe donkey kicks for the saddlebags. Probably start off with 10 for the first day and then 1 extra each day as per challenge. This would not be included in my April challenge - this would be extra. I imagine it would have the same effect as the original 60 day challenge - whatdyathink?
Anyway, housework is screaming at me,
Amanda

30 day challenge

I'm taking up a challenge with my friend Roxie (will figure out how to link her blog - i've forgotten how - d'uh) when she blogged that she was doing a 30 day challenge and of course, just had to join her (can't pass up a challenge).
So here's the deal. You have to set your eating goals and exercise schedules up and for the month of April you can't deviate at all. Not sure yet on the point penalty system yet, Roxie will have that on her blog. She has done the same, as you will see on her blog. So, this is my plan.
Eating:
Meal 1 30g oats, 75g blueberries, 4 eggwhite and tomato omlette, 100ml fat free yoghurt mixed with 25g protein powder
Meal 2 50g protein, 1 cup fibrous veg or salad
Meal 3 100g protein, 1 cup fibrous veg or salad
Meal 4 50g protein, 1 cup fibrous veg or salad
Meal 5 100g protein, 1 cup fibrous veg or salad
Post Workout Meal chocolate protein pancakes (1 serv choc protein powder, 1 egg white, 50g fat free cottage cheese dash of water - blitz and cook in non stick frypan
Throw in an apple and if hungry 13 raw almonds.
Healthy fats - olive or flaxseed oil in salad dressing with balsamic vinegar
Supplements: 6 fish oil caps, 2 multi vitamins, 1 CoQ10
3 litres of water
Green tea during day with spoon of benefibre
Will work out calories and macros in post tomorrow.
Exercise
Monday Wednesday and Friday: pump class at gym
Tuesday: upper body and 45 mins cardio
Thursday: lower body and 45 mins cardio
Saturday and Sunday: off
So thats the basics, we will both detail daily whats been happening. We have pledged to be honest and really, if one of us cheats, we are only cheating ourselves.
Wish me luck - next week we have 2 weeks school hols, easter, and ANZAC day - oh good grief - why did Roxie pick April (she must have known!!!)
Cheers and clean eating everyone!
Amanda