I really dont know how people can eat junk food all the time!  I have been pretty slack lately, well ok, really bad lately and boy how i'm paying for it now.  Headaches, tired, listless, thirsty, unmotivated, sore stiff muscles, bloated stomach, yuk.  Hubby is away for a week for work so I cant go to the gym.  My plan?  Home workouts - pumped up the swiss ball that will act as my bench and incline bench so i can do any exercises for dumbbells.  I am roughly following Jamie Eason's 12 week challenge (jumping in at phase 2) so I will adapt her weights to dumbbell exercises.  The only thing I cant do is cardio (with my back/pelvis problems I can only do tready or xtrainer) so I will plonk myself in front of the telly (in between car pooling for kids sports etc) and do lots of weights.
Food will be a bit different.  I basically did Jamie's diet previously and it got so monotonous I got bored and craved something tastier (aka junk). I just did meat/chicken and steamed veg - I dont know how you comp girls do it - a big hats off to you all !!! So im trying some recipes out of Aussie oxygen mag and its basically within the parameters of her diet.  For example, orange quinoa salad - cold cooked quinoa with onion, celery, tomatoes and any other veg and the dressing of orange zest, juice, flaxseed oil, pepper - basically its complex carb and veg.  Also chicken florentine - fillets baked in a tin of crushed tomatoes, italian herbs, garlic, a few olives, baby spinach, topped with a little parmesan cheese (optional).  Add that to the orange quinoa salad and its protein, complex carb and veg!  It just doesnt seem like it! I'll post the good recipes.  I also stumbled upon the blog The Bikini Baker so i'll try some of her recipes. So, lots of prep, inspiration and motivation needed to get on track.  I didnt lose the plot totally! I still fit into my jeans, they're just a bit snug !!!! Here's some inspiration ......



 One day .........

Have a fit and fab week everyone !

Just plodding along! Doing lots of heavy weights to failure *yay*. Havent done cardio for 2 weeks coz i hurt my lower back then had a flemmy chest that just made me cough when i went on the cross trainer - i sounded like a 50 a day smoker!!
Back into cardio today. Did 4 x 10 (failure) each of chest, back and abs then 5 mins of cardio, then repeat the whole thing 4 times (different exercises each round). Did mountain climber (hate that machine) then crosstrainer - 5 mins including 4 x 30 seconds of hiit each time.
Eating really good except weekend treat - i know, i know - i gotta get over this weekend thing! Have been reading jamie eason's 12 week challenge on bodybuilding.com. she's giving me inspiration - its basically what i'm doing now anyway. i've just got to be more consistant on the weekends.
A lady in the shops yeterday told me there's 16 weeks til christmas - eeks !!!! Is that a 16 week challenge i hear in the background!!!!!
Have a great week everyone :)

The ball is rolling

I've been in a bit of a plateau lately. Now all of a sudden i'm losing weight. I tried on a pair of white 3/4 crop pants that now fit me (never worn before). How did i do it you ask? well, the answer is ..... I don't know!!!!! maybe taking jack3d before my workouts and training harder? (not that i feel i'm working harder). maybe splitting my 20min hiit cardio into 4 x 5 minute bursts spaced out in my weights workout? i just dont know!! but hey - thats great news for me. Diet is still good but suffers a bit on the weekend but i guess thats just my lifestyle taking over my willpower at the moment.
This weight loss has inspired and motivated me to go harder and be more disciplined and its such a good feeling. I think its time to do progress pics and stats next week. have a supercharged week everyone!

I was at the shopping centre (shopping mall for american readers!!!) with my eldest (he turned 14 last week) for more school clothes. I didnt have lunch before we went so i was desperate for a coffee (Gloria Jeans capaccino, skim soy extra hot). Did all the shops for school clothes (in all 4 corners of the centre - we walked for miles) and came up with nothing! Anyway, we stopped for something to eat. Kurt chose McDonalds (doesnt have it often) and after much mental torment going on in my brain i chose a rice paper roll with salmon and salad in it. We sat in the food court to eat it (gosh you see some sights in those places!) and i really thought i was going to buckle and get something else. Then, I spotted a couple who sat down near us. I was trying so hard not to stare. The woman was probably early to mid 50's, average looking. Why was I staring????? She had an amazing figure and was wearing trendy, fashionable clothes without looking like "mutton dressed up as lamb". She looked awesome - nothing expensive - black tights, knee high black boots, white top and a black aviator style leather jacket (just like I have). Wow she looked fantastic. It stopped me from crumbling and buying something bad to eat. I just wanted to look like her now and she would have been 5 years older than me. I have her image burned into my brain - everytime I start to weaken I will think of this unknown lady in the shopping centre. I would have liked to tell her she was an inspiration but I thought that would have been a bit creepy!!!!! It makes me realise I just have to keep on plodding on with clean eating and the gym and one day I might be that lady in the shopping centre that someone looks at and gets inspiration from.
What was she eating? sushi and a gloria jeans coffee (skim milk I bet !!)

just thought i'd share with anyone that is interested .............
I LOST ANOTHER CENTIMETRE FROM MY BUM !!!!
wooohoooo !! 4cm. Doing lots of weighted floor exercises and romanian deadlifts. Now, if my diet was 100% instead of 85-90% who knows what could happen. My kids are on school term holidays and there's just more snacking food floating around. Temptation = loss of willpower .... bring on school term!!

MIA but I'm back

I havent been blogging for a few weeks - well d'oh !! My life has been crazy - lots of ups, downs, in-betweens, worries, anxieties, frustrations, disappointments and unfortunately lots of sadness. And none of those feeling are in relation to my fitness journey.
As a result I have had nearly a week off the gym and 5 days off my diet. I'm feeling tired and flat. I'm not forcing myself to do anything at the moment. But, enough is enough. Tomorrow (Thursday) I'm back into the swing of it. Drag myself out of this dark funk and Nike (just do it !!!).
On a fun note i went away for a 3 day weekend with my husband and 2 other close couples without our kids !!!! After such a horrible couple of weeks it was a welcomed break. We went to our nation's capital - Canberra (very cold at the moment). We did some sites, drank, ate in lovely restaurants and laughed and laughed the whole weekend - just what the doctor ordered !!!


So I will be blogging my dailies and watching my calories. I'm going in hard this time. I was excited to fit into my skinny jeans and they weren't tight. They are an Aussie size 10 which is prob 6-8 USA size? (don't forget i'm 5ft 11in) You cant really see in the photos coz we had our jackets on and the photo of me in the group shot shows my belt sticking out under my jumper looking like a fat belly !!!!
Anyway, this gal is digging deep and rockin' on :)

Progress Pics / Measurements

I did my measurements this morning. I was rushing off to the kids sports so i didnt get to look at the comparison. So here it is. The comparison is from 7th Feb to 7th May but the first 4 weeks I lost very little til I dropped the carbs so really its only 2 months.
Height 180cm 180cm
Weight 68kg / 62.5 -5.5kg
Chest 94/ 90 -4cm
Waist 88/ 70 -18cm
Hips 99 / 89 -10cm
Saddlebags 104 / 95 -9cm
Abdomen 94/ 89 -5cm
Left Thigh 56/ 53 -3cm
Right Thigh 57/ 53 -4cm
Left Arm 29 / 27 -2cm
Right Arm 29 / 27 -2cm
Left Calf 37/ 34 -3cm
Right Calf 38/ 34.5 -3.5cm
I guess I should be pretty excited about the results but looking at the photos below I cant see any difference! I cant seem to be able to do a side by side before and after, i'll have to play around with the software so this is as good as it gets for the moment.


I've got such a long way to go :( Even though I hide a lot in skinny jeans (they suck you in a bit!) and being 5ft 11 inches but in a bikini - sheesh!! maybe i wont have the body for a bikini????? the bikini i have on is at least one size too small but thats the size i want to fit into. anyway, i'm going by my measurements and by my clothes. IM NOT GIVING UP - after all its only been 2 months. I'll give myself another 3 months and do a progress pic and hopefully there will be a BIG difference.
I will get my inspiration from all you gals out there doing great!
Cheers

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 ......

How this on-line trainer thing is going .....

Well its been ages since i've blogged so bear with me while I recap. After FINALLY getting my programme I started with new enthusiasm and hope to lose this weight (with the extra Christmas and summer holiday fat that has decided to live with me). Seem to have enough food but holy hell - i'm missing my little something with a cup of tea or the humble piece of toast with vegemite or jam (even diet jam would be nice!). Its basically lean protein, green only veg and brown rice OR sweet potato once a day oh, and a bit of porridge thrown in as well and a few almonds and vitamin supplements. No milk *ugh* 5 meals of this !!!!!!! Everything is weighed to the EXACT gram (had to buy digital scales - oh my lord - didnt realise how heavy food is !) Exercise is 4 days a week, moderate weights only at this stage - no cardio yet (yay - I HATE cardio).
Submitted before photos, measurements etc. (yuk) I have to submit on line meal tracker and redo stats every 2 weeks and submit those as well.
Well, its been 3 weeks now. Progress you ask? Not as much as i'd hoped :( 2kgs, a cm or 2 here and there - all upper - nothing off my big fat arse or huge gut. NOT HAPPY JAN !! (I guess only Aussies will get this saying - it was from a tv add years ago and people still quote that saying!) I'm supposing ths is a long term thing but this is one impatient gal! Eating that kind of food has to get there quicker right?????? I befriended a woman on facebook that i read about on this on line trainer's website testimonials and she thoroughly recommended him. Her after photo is exactly how I want to look and she said it took her nearly 6 months (oh good grief) but i'm prepared to do that so at this stage i'll have to be patient (hahahaha).
I'm worried because i have to fit into my little black coctail dress next Saturday night for an engagement party (fingers crossed). Let alone being able to eat anything whilst I'm there !!! And have a champers or 2 and relax and have fun (HA! like that's going to happen).
Anyway, i'm paying for this programme so I will do it. I just have to remember - FOOD IS NOT FOR TASTE OR PLEASURE - I have to think of something else as a treat (whats that noise you ask? oh thats just me sniffing and wiping the tears away pretending it doesnt matter !)
No pain - no gain ! yeah, yeah, yeah - heard it all before !!!!!
Anyway, i'm going to start taking piccies of meals and bits and pieces to make it a bit more motivating and meanwhile scour the blogs I follow for inspiration.
Check in later, have a good weekend !!!

Prepping IS the Answer

Tuesday I shopped for fresh fruit and veg, went to the supermarket so I was well stocked. Wednesday I felt so nauseas and tired so after work I prepped and cooked my meals for the next 2 days. IT WORKS !! I can go to the fridge for a meal or just a nibble and its there ready - no diving into the biscuit barrel coz I can't be bothered making something.
I dug out my old issues of Oxygen magazines and will start re-reading them - some of the recipes sound unreal ! Things are feeling POSITIVE !!!!!!!!

Back on the Wagon (again !!!)

Well, Christmas, New Years Eve, summer school holidays here in Australia = lots of champagne !!! not good. We have a place down the south coast on the beach that we go to most holidays and it is very social with lots of cheese plates and drinkies at the end of the day. Compared to other years I think I did OK. However, i'm back home and things have to get back to normal - even if kids don't go back for another 2 1/2 weeks.
I shopped yesterday and today I'll start cooking and prepping food for the next few days. I think i'll do the cook twice a week plan as i have to cook for my 3 kids and hubby. I know that the kids should be eating the majority of what i'm eating but in the real world that just does NOT happen. I read some articles in the Australian Oxygen mag written by John Davies and he documented the diet in great detail of a girl prepping for a bobybuilding contest. Very enlightening !!!! I'm going to have a crack at doing this diet for around 4 weeks just to strip some fat off my body (if anyone understands this term you could call me skinny fat) just to see the muscles a bit underneath - i know they are there somewhere !!!!!
Anyway I'm off to work today *blah* so I'll have to cook when I get home.