Loving my Weekends!

Weekends ARE your lifestyle!

How you choose to spend your downtime is a huge part of your life.. two full days of weekend.. that’s 48 hrs, minus 16 hrs for sleep, leaving 32 hrs for QUALITY TIME!

How did you spend your quality time this weekend?

In between housework, cuddling my children, and generally lazing in my bedroom, chilling with some computer games and doing a bit of study, I’ve been working out!

3pm Saturday.. Kickboxing with Doug.  Awesome fun although I think a week of skipping gym time really hit home – I had to take a five minute breather when I started with the hot flushes!

6pm Saturday.. Nat called for an impromptu visit to Ambitionz!  The new 24hr system is up and running and we decided to check it out together.  Well she caned me.. she wanted to box but holding the mitts – I swear that just means she wanted to tell me what to do and make me work my arse off!  About 10mins later and the hot flushes were back!

8am Sunday.. SSS JuJu Jelly Legs Program on the 12wbt.  This goes down as my all time favourite workout!  My legs are caned!

I had plans of coming home and heading off to Yeppoon for some bushwalking by the beach and then coming home for a run.. but my legs are just not co-operating so a hot bath tonight is on the cards!

But last weekend.. OMG!  My Sunday was awesome!

I did the JuJu Jelly Legs SSS in the morning, then went to climb up Mt Jim Crow – amazing stuff and a great time with the boys! And then, just because I am insane (and possibly spurred on my the motivation of a Roast dinner!) I did a ‘quick’ 6.5km run – 45mins thankyou!

I am slowly learning that I don’t need to ‘train’.  I just need to live a healthy life.  Going to the gym is fun and builds my fitness but it isn’t an end to itself – however knowing that it is preparing me for a full and fun life – that makes it worthwhile!

Anything is possible!

Right now, I am standing on the precipice of my new life. 

A life without 12wbt.  A life where I am in control of my destiny. 

A life where failure is great and success is just a stepping stone.

Aside from all the emotional sentiments above, I am finding myself at the verge of a mental breakthrough – not a breakdown (I’ve been doing that for 15yrs now!), but a break through!  I’ve over-committed and I love it.

I’ve signed up to do a Cert 3/4 in fitness.  Not to get ahead in my career, in fact, I have no career goals at all really when it comes to fitness.  I just want to do it.

I want to see a change in the fitness industry – away from the quick fix mentality.  I want to start with myself.  I want to change my life through fitness and health and becoming my own Personal Trainer sounds like an awesome way to do that!

I am thinking that it will also make me a better personal trainer and I may just be able to fit some personal training for a few clients into my schedule once I am done.

So weekend warrior fitness trainer here I come!

Today’s life lessons!

Food tracking is a great way to stay focused and lose weight by monitoring and thus limiting the number of calories you consume.  It helps you to become aware of what is in the food you eat, and a good program, like Calorie King, lets you track your macronutrients as well.

Today I found out another benefit to tracking your food!  I was nervous today and so my usual food patterns went by the wayside and I ‘snacked’ my way through lunch.  That is, I had an early snack of strawberries and a muffin (200 cals), and then another snack at 11am of nuts and a cup of tea (220cals) and then at 1pm I had to go out so had half a mandarin (42cals).  By the time I had picked up the kids (3pm) I was “Hangry” (so hungry I was getting that tense angry feeling!).  Result:  a quick pop into Maccas to get a couple of nuggets turned into 470 calories consisting of eight nuggets and a few chippies.  And let’s not forget the $21 I handed over, and that the kids got another dose of that crap food!

The huge bonus is that I can look at my daily record and see quite clearly where I went wrong!  When I had that early snack, I should have had an early lunch rather then that extra snack, I’m having an early dinner anyway so it would have worked out perfectly!

The basis of losing weight is to limit calories but the idea is to make sure you do so in a way that ensures you are healthy!  It isn’t just calories, it isn’t just macronutrients, it is also about when you eat your food and matching that up to when your body needs the food!

Five to six meals a day, with a bit of protein at each meal; Carb it up early in the day, but leave it at vegies for night time carbs.  And then find a balance that suits your lifestyle – when you work, train, study – to make sure you feel satisfied and have energy when you need it!  Avoid that afternoon crash with a good solid lunch and having your afternoon snack ready to go!

Awesome August Challenge

With four weeks to go it is time to up the ante!

I’ve not been achieving my goals this round and have been very up and down.  So my new goal is “CONSISTENCY”.

Here is what I am going to do this month:

1. Wake up at 6:30am (bedtime by 10pm)
2. Pack my Lunch each weekday and go to University
3. Do my scheduled gym work even if I don’t feel like it (I’ve changed to the prep to 10km program in the lead up to my next race).
4. Take photos of what I eat and count calories
5. Suck it up and use a water bottle every day
6. Do my meal planning and shopping on Saturday
7. Stick to my budget!
8. Make sure all three kids to homework each day (and Viola for JD)
9. At least one chore per day for pocket money for kids!
10. Do AMRAP hand stands and pull-ups each night.

Now before I do that, I need to work out what to pack for lunches for work and for dinner for the rest of the week, and snacks, all based on what I have in the house. I think this is where I have fallen short:  packing lunches is not my forte! lol

First things first though.. I am putting on my yogurt maker so I at least have fresh yogurt!  I’ll go through the list and get myself ready for the rest of the week now.  I feel so much better with a plan!

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!