OMG! It arrived!

My prize pack from the earlier Weekly Surprise – Nominate a Blogger, arrived today.  I loved this surprise - as you can obviously tell, I love to blog!  I recommended all my fellow Rocky bloggers and a couple of other favourites (listed to the right!) as well popping in a quick plug for myself! 

I’m not really one for entering these surprises as by now, I have won my fair share of prizes!  I’ve won a Polar HRM (which I gave to my sister), a George Foreman Grill – used daily) and a George Foreman Slow Cooker (which unfortunately had a fatal accident involving a hard floor and children).  But I had to enter this one.. not only a Blog based surprise but also a new prize up for grabs!

So what was the prize?  A Dermaviduals  and a Tea Tonic pack.

I hadn’t heard of either of these brands, but hey, skincare and tea.. sounds fantastic, so off I went to do some research!

Dermaviduals

This is German company (the products are made in Germany) based on skincare products which work naturally with the skin to improve it’s own ability to retain moisture and prevent aging symptoms.  It has no nasty stuff in it, and while there are a some chemical compounds that you won’t be able to pronounce it is nothing like the list you see on the average skincare product!  Check out their website for yourself to read about the science behind the products!

I received the Total Cleansing Cream – a body wash and shampoo,  DMS-Base Cream High Classic – a moisturiser, and Face Tonic – a refreshing spray.  They came packed in a blue toiletries bag which is a great size too!

So far I have been blitzing my skin with the face tonic and I have to say.. it is so nice!  I can’t wait to try the other products!

Tea Tonic

I love tea.  There is no secret there, but I struggle with herbal teas – they usually are bitter and more of a chore then a treat.  But OMG!  I’ve just sat down and enjoyed a cup of Liquorice Lovers Tea.  The first thing I noticed about the tea is that it looked more like potpourri then the dried up black flecks one normally associates with tea.  You can actually see what is in the tea!

This stuff is amazing.. hand picked, organic, Australian, and just plain good for you!

I sat down to blog with my tea brewing beside me, and decided to be brave and not add that teaspoon of honey that I normally would.  I let the tea sit in the cup for minute to cool and contemplated the gorgeous smell, hoping it would taste just the same!  And it did!  It wasn’t an overpowering taste, or a bitter one.. just a refreshing ‘flavour’ to the water.

Looking over the pack I received a teapot (one person sized) with thirteen ‘travel tins’ and a sample size of the Licorice Lover Tea.  I have a feeling I will be buying some more of this product, with the Spring Carnival Tea Cup and Saucer Gift Set high on the list of potential wedding gifts (hint! hint!).

I am very keen now to try the black tea and chocolate flavour!  This one is a milk tea and if yummy enough, may replace my morning cuppa!

 

Overall, I am totally stoked with my prize so a huge Thank You! to the 12wbt team!

What happened in Week 6..

Week 6 was my come back week after illness had me grounded in weeks 4 and 5.  Unfortunately I lost some of the ground I had gained over the first three weeks, resulting in a couple of extra kilos on the scales. 

My comeback started with an epic SSS beginning with the SSS with the Rocky group and followed up with a 13km run!  I had not run for 5 weeks (since the Rocky River Run) and then it was only 10km – and I had only run the 10ks once in prep for that!  Result:  3 days worth of DOMS so bad I couldn’t even make it down my back steps without total agony (and lots of handrail gripping).

So obviously Monday was a rest day (given I could barely walk) but Tuesday I headed to the gym.  There was no way I could do the L&S workout so I just walked on the Treadmill to loosen up and then did an upper body.  The next day was about the same but I worked in a little bit of lower body at low weights.  Thursday I hit the treadmill for 30mins and then did a decent abs workout and then ran through a full body workout on Friday.  Saturday I tortured myself with a Combat/Pump double which was awesome fun!

Sunday was SSS day and I joined the Rocky crew for Kama’s Stairmaster SSS – Torture I tell you!  It was raining and cold for start and we had to change venue to one a little less wet.. but we still struggled to find a dry patch to do the mini-circuits.  The stairs were great and although you would think they would be the hardest part, they, at least, got easier as the workout went on (reducing in the number of repetitions!).  The mini-circuits at the top though.. harder and harder!  Thankfully I forgot my weights so was able to concentrate on form and endurance.. *wink*.

I started food tracking on the weekend and counting up my calories consumed, it is not so hard to do on the weekend.  Turns out I am averaging around the 1500calorie mark.  I would like to get that a little lower.. 1300-1400 calories this week. 

It has been great just concentrating on being healthy rather then doing the lean and strong program specifically.  I do enjoy the freedom of going for a run, and cutting my workouts down to a clean 45mins!  I am itching to get back into it though I am thinking I might stick to lean and fit for a while so I can drop these KG!

Goal by week 12 weigh in.. 5kg lost!  (That’s 5 weeks away.. a kg a week!  Argh, better up that cardio! )

Organisation Week, Day 5: Irony

I should have organised my Organisation Week a bit better. 

Day 5 and I have run out of topics!

Tomorrow I will be focusing on doing my mindset lesson for the 12wbt Super Surprise.  I have some plans but need some time to focus on it.  I put pop into the office at university and do a full on video!  I will post my results here!

 

In the meantime.. Thank God It’s Friday!

Organisation Week, Day 4: When it all falls apart.

The best thing about being organised:  When things fall apart, the basics are always there. 

There is food in the freezer, your program is printed out ready to go, your gym bag has a spare pair of socks or $2 for a hire towel from the gym.

And it is so much easier when things are normal then when you are constantly in a state of change.  When your organisation is a habit you don’t have to think about when to meal plan or when to shop, or where to put your gym shoes when you get home.  You automatically throw your iPhone on charge when you get home so you have a full charge for the gym or that run, you automatically throw your gym towel and clothes in the wash when you get in and know you have a clear space ready to put them away in.

Life becomes easy.

A healthy life becomes easy.

Organisation Week, Day 3: The KISS Principle.

 

keep

It

Simple

Stupid!

The key to any change is simplicity.  If you make it hard, well, it becomes hard!  And how hard to we make things in our efforts to become perfect.. we must exercise an hour a day, at the gym, give 110% every second, do the very best exercise routine, just the right amount of cardio, just the right amount of weights, we need to have our HRM, we need to burn exactly 500cals, we have so many rules!  And if it’s not perfect.. then ‘DA..DUM’, it’s a big fat F for Failure!

The best thing we can do, is to keep our measurement of success, or rules for success, simple!  The 12wbt is a huge program and full of complexity but really, the basis is simple.  The complexity only lies in that the program needs to meet the needs of so many, so take what you need to simplify it!

Here is how I have the program simplified:

1. Print recipes and exercise plan on Sunday and put in folder/booklet.
2. Meal Plan and shop on Sunday
3. Keep my gym bag with gear ready to go
4. Get to the gym everyday.

That is it. 

That is all I have to do to succeed.  I don’t need to use all the recipes, I don’t need to follow Mish’s plan exactly, but I do need to meal plan from recipes that I know the calories for!  I don’t need to think about my exercise program.. I just need to print it out, work out where I am doing it, and then just do it.  I also don’t need to go crazy if I choose a class for a day, or skip a day from illness.. just jump back in where I am.

Over-thinking, over-analysing, over-organising is just as dangerous and under doing any of those things!  Work out the basics that you need to do.  Keep it simple and just do it!

Organisation Week, Day 2: Be ready to workout!

Organisation is really all about beating your excuses before they have a chance to take hold.  The most common excuses not to exercise are that we don’t have time, I don’t know what to do, my gym clothes are dirty, my phone isn’t charged, I can’t find my socks, etc.

How do we beat these? The 12wbt is all about planning and that is the first thing.. schedule in your workouts!  It can be hard at first, particularly when you find you have to swap and change workout times to figure out which time is best.  After over a year I can tell you now, afternoon exercise is my friend.  Although Mish recommends the mornings, it just doesn’t work for everyone and consistency is the most important thing!

The next thing – set your goals and plan your workout types around this, lean and strong or lean and fit, with your SSS.  You have your program so make sure you have it printed it and available!   If you can use the iPhone functionality that is great, but if you are like and have crap reception at the gym, print it out in A5 at the start of the week and glue it into a notebook.  This makes it easy to put in your weights and times each day and track your progress! You can also easily flick back through and see what weights you used last time you did a certain exercise.

And last but not least: Keep your gym clothes and gear organised and ready to go!  I have three gym pants and wash both the kids uniforms and my gym gear on Wednesday and Sundays.  I have my gym ‘uniform’ basic so I just grab pants, bra, top, and socks which I keep folded on one shelf in my cupboard.  I have a major Lorna Jane addiction at the moment so I am getting quite a collection!

I cycle my towels on Wednesday and Sundays as well, making sure my gym bag is always ready to go!  No excuses! 

I have a tub under my bed where I keep my gear together – tape measure, running belt, Halo headphones, yoga mat and blocks, weights, and more! 

It comes down to getting in the habit of finishing something by making sure it is ready to go next time.  When you finish a workout, make sure you leave everything ready to go for the next one!

Organisation Week, Day 1: Meal Planning!

Like it or not, there is no getting around it!  Meal planning is essential to a healthy lifestyle!  Hopefully it will become second nature, but while in the process of change – make yourself sit down and do it! 

Breakfast should be easy.  Although Mish’s 12wbt offers a huge variety of breakfasts and I urge you to try as many as possible, it is much simpler to just pick a couple of easy favourites and stick with them. You will soon find that some make it easy to hang on to lunch time with just a small snack, and others will need a larger snack or early lunch!  I find anything with an egg is a good thing!

Snacks are hard to plan for as often it will depend on how you feel.. sometimes a boiled egg, sometimes a tomato with a pinch of salt and pepper, but usually I have a yogurt, Body-wise bar, or piece of fruit as staples.

Lunches should be a mix of leftovers and easy to make wraps.  Making up a couple of containers with salad in them means you can have an easy side for lunch and a tin of tuna or leftover meat as another option as well.

Dinners should be easy to cook and throw in at least one ‘batch’ recipe a week so you can put in some leftovers.  This means that at least 2 meals (one dinner, one lunch) can be leftovers and you can have variety!  It also means that if you get caught working late and can’t cook, you can just throw something in the microwave from the freezer!

Although the Michelle Bridges 12wbt comes with a meal plan and shopping list already prepped (for 2 adults), it is essential to start setting aside time now so you can get the habit of meal planning ingrained in your lifestyle.  It should become second nature to choose your dinners each week from a host of favourites, to have a pattern to packing your lunches based on what is available at work or home and which days you are going to be where!  It also saves you a shitload of money on takeout and wasted food as well!

My organisation tip of the day.. print out Michelle’s weekly meal planner and fill in your breakfast, lunches, and dinners, as well as some snack options.  Print off your recipes onto A5 paper (or two pages per A4) so they are a nice size as well as saving paper and store them in a folder in plastic sleeves.  Then write up your shopping list, go shopping, and do up as much prep as you can on the weekend including a batch meal!

Remember the seven Ps:

Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance!

On top of the world!

I finally feel normal again!  And tomorrow I shall be backing that up with some exercise! 

Being sick, I’ve had time to really stop and think.  Some days I missed the exercise, others – not so much!  But the thing that stood out was how quickly my nutrition went haywire.  It started with just a few ‘extras’ and ended up with KFC and Dominos featuring as major contributors!

It really brings home how important organisation is.  If I plan my food for the week it is easy… I just do what I have written down.  But if not, the doors – and my mouth - are wide open!  I don’t get out the right meat to defrost, things go ‘off’ in the fridge (though my version of ‘off’ may be much sooner then others!), and the excuses pile up on top of each other.

So this week I dedicate to organisation!  Each day I will post about how I am organising my life to make nutrition and exercise easy!

Never again.

Never again shall I see a gain on the scales on Weigh-in Wednesday.

 

#Justsaying.

Stars and Comets

In the darkness, it is the stars that give us hope.  And just as I was feeling like a big bag of poop because I was sick and couldn’t exercise and actually gained weight… along come my shining star of hope.   

I did my measurements a little late this week but I eventually got round to them thinking the results will not be impressive.  I wish I had of done them sooner!  I lost 7cm from my waist, and gained biceps!  I lost some off my thighs as well as from my back/chest.  So happy! 

I can see why measurements are done every four weeks.  That four week hump is a toughie, motivation wanes, the kg can seem unimpressive in light of the massive amounts still to go, but centimetres give us hope.  They are not quite as fickle as those scales which can jump around 3kg depending on water retention, and how long since you last took a number two!

I feel re-energised by my results… ready to take on the next four weeks!

Now I need to get back into some exercise, slowly but surely, as I recover from bronchitis.  I am still coughing, fatigued, and suffering muscular aches, but the fog over my brain has lifted, the sinus’ are beginning to clear, and I am managing to get some decent hours of sleep in!

Comets however are another matter!  Comets are astronomical events that only come around once in a lifetime and can either breeze past with spectacular results, or threaten to crash into us and destroy the world.

And so I sit here trying to write my first paper – an event that I thought would breeze past with a tail of spectacular colours displaying my awesomeness.. but instead is threatening to shatter my world of academic confidence.  I am unmotivated, uninspired, and un.. well un-everything.

As I sit here pondering how I will manage to get this task completed I think about the lessons I have learned from 12wbt. JFDI.  I don’t need to be motivated, I just need to be consistent.  And just because I haven’t been consistent, doesn’t mean that I cannot start now.  Today.  Right this very minute!

I shall leave you all now, as I go to shoot out a counter missile to knock my comet off course for a direct hit, in hope that it will graze past my world with a display of colours and lights that will be visible to the entire universe!