The new goal...

So I've made a big decision, and thats to change my goal I'm aiming for with this 12 week challenge!

I've decided to change what I wanted to achieve from doing this program - actually not true - the clothes I want to fit into are still the same, but its become apparent to me that since having a baby my body has changed! Yes ok for those of you thinking I'm insane and that was always going to be the case, I guess I should have known that my stomach would be different, I was living in denial I think! I am about the same weight I was for my wedding, pre baby, but don't fit into the clothes I did as well as I want to.

I knew that my body had changed but I find that strange that my 68kg then was so different to my 68kg now! Disappointing! But the good thing is that I still have 6 weeks to go. I'm half way now - and I've lost 5kg so far. So my aim is not just to get to 65, but to get to 63kg. I've done better than I thought so far, and so now I don't want to slacken off - I need another goal which is still achievable, so I wont be stupid and say 60kg, cos that wont happen in 6 weeks... well not with looking after 6 months old Bella it wont happen anyway! 63kg might be achievable, but also should make me try a bit harder. I cant stop now when I'm only half way, and I have the potential to get even better!
After the 12 weeks I think I'll try to get to 60kg... depends how the next few weeks go I guess, but this food is great, and thats 80% of the effort so I'll still try to get there before I change to maintain state I think.

Paris Dress - from Rome, worn in Paris!

My clothes I fit into now like I wanted to - my Levi Jeans :) yay!

Clothes I still want to fit into a bit better -

My paris dress, Diesel Jeans, and both dresses from Italy. All of these things now I can get on and they do up (YAY first step!) but the most important step is being able to feel comfortable in them and therefore wear them.

So although I'm actually now at the weight I wanted to be at - I still have a fair way to go.

Revised Goal for the next 6 weeks is 63kg... and I'll be working working working to get there!

The numbers game

So today is weigh in today... but before I get to my result of today there is something else I want to discuss. Heart Rate Monitors, and calories burnt. I'm finding it harder and harder to burn calories. I can only guess its because I'm getting fitter and smaller.

I recently came home from an RPM class annoyed that I didn't burn more calories. I had a 'discussion' with my husband over this. He didn't seem to get my point that I wanted to burn more calories in the same amount of time instead of less and less every week. It really annoys me that I seem to work just as hard but burn less! We went round and round with me just plain annoyed I have to work harder, and my dear husband not understanding why I was annoyed that a) I'm getting quite fit, and b) that I'm losing weight so am smaller, making those calories harder to lose! Silly debate really, as we were both on my side when it comes down to it, I think it just annoys me haha. DH's point at the end was 'imagine how hard Michelle Bridges needs to work to burn 1000 calories!'. He did have some good points (and no I don't think I'm as fit as her!!!).

So the weigh in... after my big weekend, not as good as I wanted to be, but still very focused on counting calories where I could, as MB says, 'its 80% about the food' - so with that in mind... drum roll please... I'm now 68.2kg ... can you believe it! My aim after being pregnant with my daughter was to be 68kg... luckily I went a bit beyond this for 12wbt and said my aim is 65kg. It's just unbelievable... my weight just before my wedding was 67.9kg. I cant believe I'm practically there, and I'm so excited for what the next 7 weeks brings! Even a small weight loss over these weeks will bring me lower than I've ever been before.

This shows me what dedication can really do. For anyone who thinks its 'easier' for me, or any other excuse as to why this seems to be working... I'm dedicated. Thats it. I do the work outs she sets. I count calories and try to stay under 1200 calories (actually 1700 cos I'm breastfeeding). I'm honest with what I eat. I don't have much time for other things cos I'm cooking, exercising, cleaning, looking after bubb etc. But for the 12 weeks (only 5 so far!) of effort, think of the pay back and clothes I can wear by the end of this. My body seems to be changing every day, and I wake up excited to try on clothes I haven't been able to wear in a year!

Looking forward to the next 3.2kg. They will be hard to lose but I'm so excited at the prospect of losing them!

Living in the 60's

Wow its been a week since I last wrote.. I guess thats what happens with a teething bubba and trying to fit in exercise and eating well and shopping and a 50th and a visit to the Melbourne show!

This week I went to Melbourne to meet up with some mums I know and stay at my little sisters house - I ran 5km while there which I loved and loved that I did it fairly quickly! but... super annoyingly my tracker which tells me the stats of my run didnt work and I was already running so couldn't fix it grrr so I don't know my actual times and meant that I needed to do my 'fitness test' for the 12wbt again later on during the week. But I ran about 5km according to my sister's housemate and I was rapt with that as I was only running 3km previously and ran this fairly well.

I hadnt been feeling all that crash hot this week - with my SSS on saturday only adding to 850cals and me going over I was worried I wouldnt lose weight this week - but I was surprised and incredibly happy to see I'd lost 0.8 and was 69.2kg when I weighed in on Wednesday!! Rapt to be back here and this weight is closer to what I was pre-pregnancy. So yes my jeans fit WOOOHOO and the clothes I was wearing on my honeymoon fit yay! I'm getting there! 4.2kg to go to my goal weight...

Today is Sunday and so as promised I will fast forward through some of the week and hope that this isnt a long boring post.

This week saw more social gatherings. Both easier and harder than last week! Going to social gatherings for me is hard, not as much for the food etc offered and the willpower required (not a problem for me in terms of willpower), but that I have no power over the food offered to me... pretty hard.

Lunch saturday was at my sister in laws house and there was lovely lovely food. I needed to bring salad and bread and our own meat. I found its hard as you cant bring my lovely wholemeal seady bread to something like this as its more acceptable to bring a nice crunchy white loaf. For the salad I got away with a green salad, so that one was ok! Overall though it was hard to count calories, but with half a piece of steak (not even a full one - I'm learning!) some salad and one piece of the bread and a pass on the dessert (she knows about the 12wbt so luckily I wasn't bugged about skipping dessert!) I think I ended lunch on an ok note.

Dinner was at a 50th in Melbourne. Sausage rolls, hot dogs, dim sims etc... how to choose what to eat. So I had two party sausage rolls and one pasty. Wasn't enough food but lasted me for a while. Then some mini chicken rolls came out later - GREAT! I had two and lasted all the way through the rest of the food and dessert. Instead of standing around drinking and eating, I helped with the food prep and passing it around to guests which busied my hands. I realised I needed to bring water to gatherings though, as most of the time only soft drinks are provided and there is only so much diet drinks I can drink (Mich being in my head saying only one once in a while!). So ended I think if not within my calories, not far past them.

Unfortunately I couldn't do my SSS though, living where I live made that impossible (3hrs drive to melb) and with my daughter waking at 6am and us not sleeping so well, getting up early isnt an option, no matter what Mich says. So I need to try to fit in another 1000cals throughout this week sometime if possible if I have any chance of keeping up the weight loss!

Today (Sunday) we went to the Melbourne show, and although I was walking around all day, any other exercise was virtually impossible! Food was ok, I taste tested a few things, had an Empanada for lunch (YUM) and snuck in a couple of ciders which was naughty but I haven't drank in so long I let myself! I had a muesli bar for afternoon tea in the car and that held me out till I got home at 8:30pm and warmed up frozen canneloni for dinner (meanwhile we stopped through Maccas, hubby got a meal and an extra burger and I got a bottle of water...mean...).

I think overall this weekend tested me, I learnt some stuff (bring water & keep snacks in the car for emergencies!)  and although I couldn't exercise that made it even more important to eat well. I have been tired (3 hours sleep while my daughter has been teething) and emotional and yet I've managed to curb emotional eating. No opening blocks of chocolate here. Its 'drink a bottle of water and then see if I want a piece'. I never do :) I don't binge on 6 biscuits, I know the after effects before they come. I just seem to be making better decisions which is great. 12 weeks is a long time, but I do think that I will have learnt ALOT and changed alot of habits by the time this is over.

I don't think I will gain this week - I think I've been really good throughout this, but I will be extremely surprised if I lose anything at all! Stay in the 60's is my aim and see how I can push myself this week.

So 69.2kg, 4.2kg to go, 8 weeks till the end. 1/3 of the way through and things are going GREAT so far!

When friends come to play

As I've said before, I live out in Gippsland sort of in the country. So I basically live 3 hrs from Melbourne which is where my best friend, and most of my friends and family are located. So Friday night this best friend came to stay (godmother to my nearly 6 month old too) and have dinner and hang out. This was great and we had a ball... but how do you break the 'have a few wines and chat' scene which often happens with great friends? I had a low fat meal planned (Laksa so still yummy!) and had saved some calories for a glass of wine too... but being a great friend she had bought over dip and bickies and a bottle of wine and some other yum stuff too. Oh and our present from her recent trip to spain was an amazing bottle of tawny port from Porto! SO thoughtful cos we are into wine... anyway distracted.

So I had some of the dip etc while cooking, then had a couple of glasses of wine to be sociable, then had some port after the gift giving and it was delicious. Even through all my efforts I was still about 250cals over my daily limit. I think if i'd had anything less it would have almost been rude.. but in saying that - how did hanging out become something that required food and wine? Or is that something that has always been the case?



The next day I noted though, we drove about 1.5 hrs to a place for lunch looking over the ocean and I could just pick a soup for lunch and was well within my cals... so why is a friday night different to saturday? Does that mean I need to stick to meeting friends and family during the day where coffee and tea or a soup etc is acceptable? Can I avoid wines etc at night if we meet up? People are far more likely to say 'oh just have one its ok' at night rather than during the day.


Well 9 weeks left to go. 1/3 of the way through the 12 weeks. Will be sticking to lunches for a while I think!

The black hole

Its midway through week 3 and I think i've hit the spot between, 'gosh this is hard eating & training like this' and the best stage - 'routine stage'.

Goal weight (6 weeks pregnant)

I get up still a bit annoyed that I need to exercise and try to fit it in, but not quite annoyed enough to complain - I just get on with it. I am a bit fitter, so I need to work harder to get the cals up (last night I needed to run 1km on the treadmill after a boxing class to get over 500cals :(  ). I eat lunch/dinner and alot of the time now feel like something 'sweet' after it, or really feel like something I used to eat like a big homemade pizza drowning in cheese, and then realise I cant eat it. I'm stuck now in this place of less motivation than the first week - you get in a sort of headspace which is 'I'm losing weight, i'll be fine' and wanting to eat something bad, and the new place that is 'a) I'm not at my goal weight and still have 5kg to go, and b) this is a lifestyle! keep going!'.



Its a hard place and I was warned that the 3-4 weeks part is quite hard. But what has helped is everyone around me knowing what I'm doing. If I fall off the bandwagon I'll be someone who has failed. I am not that someone, and failing is not something I do.

The night before my daughter was born

I sometimes think that at the end of this it will be about November. My daughter will be about 8 months old, and I hope to get pregnant again maybe June/July next year... then I think OMG after another baby I'll need to do this again! Mindset mindset mindset.... lifestyle lifestyle lifestyle... but still...!

Keep going for the moment is all I can do.

Do I feel skinny?

This morning I woke up quite excited - after eating well all week and exercising great, and overcoming my shake issues, I really wanted to get on the scales and see how all my work had done, had it paid off? I had weighed myself on Monday and I was 70.5, but we all know that a couple of days can change the weight!

I woke up and thought... oh no I don't 'feel' skinny today. Its a weird concept and I don't know if I'm alone in it, but some days I just feel skinnier than others, and its proven to me that on those days I'm often lighter than the others! So this morning I gave myself a pep talk, "Its ok, anything under 71 will be good, I only lost 0.7 last week so really any sort of loss today is ok" jumped on the scales and it said 70.0! after turning it on and off again and testing it 3 times I accept it - I've lost 1.2kg yay!

I dont know what it is about this program though, I didn't need to feel skinny to lose the weight, I'm rarely hungry (if I am I eat something!) I can eat stews, lasagne, pies, BREAD!, pasta, chocolate, I'm not starving myself and I'm loving the food - my hubby is loving it too which makes this even easier.

If you can get your butt up and do the exercise 6 days a week (only 3 real 'hard' sessions) and eat well with portion control... things are fine! Saturday I didn't get a chance to eat all my snacks, so instead had a couple of glasses of red wine with dinner saturday night. I feel like an advertisement but I think I'm just amazed that for this effort I'm putting in I'm really seeing results. Loving it.

5kg to go for the goal this round.. If I make it to 65kg It will be the only time I can remember in my LIFE ever being that small... 5kg to go and 9 weeks to go... so that means a little over 0.5kg a week and Im there... wish me luck!

How to give praise... and not sound like you're hitting on the trainer!

Unfortunately this post is not the answer for the title - if you do know the answer feel free to comment and let me know!

So we did RPM tonight, me and a fellow 12wbt'er, and during it I felt so incredibly pumped (despite me stupidly getting the seat/handlebars and everything else on the bike set up wrong, even making the instructor get down off the bike DURING the session to help me change it... ugh embarrassing) and the reason I felt so pumped in my usual hated RPM class is because the trainer is FANTASTIC. She's loud, she sings, she tells you what to do when and you are never confused, she gives you tips and tricks that I always seem to need (head up, chest high, knees over toes etc) and just overall really makes you feel like going on!

The problem comes where I am of the firm opinion that if you think someone/something/food/person etc etc is good and over and above the expected/norm that you should tell them! but going through my head is - how do you tell someone how much you appreciate them, without sounding like you are absolutely totally in love with them and either a) making them feel self conscious or b) just making you look like a loser and the instructor saying 'hmmm yeah uh thanks?' and looking back blankly at you wondering at your intentions (as above - trainer is a SHE not a he... definitely no hitting on from my end!). Anyway so I think it turned out ok... I told her in a clumsy way that I thought it was the best class i'd ever done and that was cos she was awesome (see even writing it sounds ridiculous!) and tried to escape quickly afterwards (after a lesson in how to set the bike up) and left my drink bottle on the bike cos I was in a hurry to leave... oh and I just realised I didnt clean the bike doh!

hmmm RPM is quickly becoming my embarrassment of the week... but I love it. 536 cals later and I think I can deal with the embarrassment!

To train once, or go all out?

Today is Monday and the third week of the 12wbt.

My dilemma for today is do I train today, try to fit a run or dvd session in while my 5.5 month old daughter sleeps, and meanwhile the house gets more and more dirty (hard to keep clean in amongst all the time taken for training/cooking etc!) or do I just wait for tonight when I have my RPM session planned?

I have been seeing alot of the 12wbt'rs are doing more than one session a day and I feel like I'm caught in the middle, do I train in the day AND tonight? That might a) make me lose heaps more weight as the training is compounded with more training and eating really well, or will it b) make me lose motivation too early in the 12 weeks and think 'its too hard doing this every day'. So far I've taken the 'don't want to lose motivation' road - still training, but only what the recommend and no more.

Do I risk not losing as much as I really want to? Maybe... but I also want this to be a continual thing, and burning myself out too early might mean that I want a 'day off' here and there. Consistency is key, not going crazy and burning myself out I think... thats for today anyway.

Whoooops, shake miscalculations

So week 3.

I wanted to start this week off good given the 0.7kg loss from last week I didn't feel was enough. The first few weeks are meant to be the biggest! Water retention and all that. And those who say 'you're building muscle!' no - you're wrong. Thats the excuse for those people NOT LOSING WEIGHT! That isnt true unless you are a body builder. So I smile and say 'oh yeah maybe' but all the time as i'm nodding along with them thinking 'no i'm still unhappy and you're not helping!'

So anyway tried to start off the week good and then realised i'd been making up my protein shakes wrong! Seriously am I stupid!? grrrrrrrrr the 100 cal is WITHOUT milk not WITH stupid stupid. So now after wanting to start my week off good I'm already 200cal in deficit. My resolve strengthened. Im using myfitnesspal to scan (you can scan the barcode) and check everything I'm eating, so back on track.

Saturdays I'm quite excited for - most of them aren't and I hate them, but I sort of love them cos afterwards I feel skinny! So Friday night I go to bed feeling cos as apart from the shake scenario I've eaten and exercised GREAT. 

BUT my daughter had other ideas.

Friday night my little girl decided to wake, and wake, and wake... 10:30 feed, 12:30am feed, 2:30am feed, 4:30am feed then 6:30am and feed and up WHAT?! to be honest every time she woke I didnt care as much getting up and I was nearly CRYING realising I needed to do the 1000CAL workout the next day! 

But I got up and when she went down for a sleep I cleaned the house, then my mother in law took her and instead of eating lunch I put that off and went and did the workout! Intermediate wasnt cutting it so I did two rounds of the intermediate then one of the Advanced. Last week I'd burned 740cal by this stage and this time I was only up to 550cal. So tiring... I was trying sooo hard too! 

So 10 mins of the dvd later - note for those doing the 12WBT dont try the cardio dvd after 3 rounds and an hour of the SSS! mental. couldnt feel my legs, and dizzy from no sleep and starving! 

But Im determined. Anyone who knows me from basketball, netball etc, I'm competitive and I get what I set out to get. So I was getting to 1000cal no matter what I had to do!! I had my heart rate monitor on and so after 2 5min episodes of the dvd I started to run around my property. I decided to run till I got to the 1000 cal! quickest way to burn off the cals. So started running and slowly slowly the cals started to build. Higher and higher. I realised as I was running that they will keep ticking over; you keep working, they keep ticking! 

Anyway I got there. 1001cals and 2:15 mins later. 3km run in 6:48min/km after the 3 rounds and the dvd. 

It was an achievement for me and I finished happy. I actually had a shower then tried on my clothes I wanted to fit into by the end of this 12 weeks. For anyone lacking motivation, try on your clothes and it will make you want to go do the exercise. Then try them on again after a good session - it will motivate you even more to eat good that night and try again the next day! 

Sunday is today and its rest day. I needed it and after going to a 1yr old party (NOTHING there to eat for me... I had one piece of white bread to stop the hunger till we left and I could get something suitable!) I'm home and ready and roaring to get into the exercise tomorrow. 

I feel addicted to the feeling I get after the exercise and I hope others do too. I can feel the changes already, I just want the scales to show the difference too. 

Anyway after saying last blog I wouldn't make these huge and boring I fear I've done just that! Next one might be smaller... or I might just continue to have alot to say! Dunno if anyone will find this interesting or not but would love comments of any sort :)

Oh I've attached my last week's inspiration board I created - all the things I'm striving for and the clothes I have been talking about that I want to wear again!

Two weeks down... (& about me)

So I'm two weeks into the 12 week body transformation by Michelle Bridges and just decided to start a blog.
Actually slightly not true - there is a prize for good/inspiring blogs this week and reading some of them made me think that writing one myself might actually be good for me and stop me ranting and raving to my husband, non stop, 24 hrs a day about this challenge!

So a bit about me - I have a 24 week old daughter (25 weeks tomorrow!) and I'm trying to lose my baby weight which I had from her.

I live sort of in the bush out in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, and we live on a 220Acre property so I run around here a bit.

I'm 27 and to put numbers out there, was 73.2kg when I started this and am aiming for 65kg by the end. Last wednesday on weight in day I was 71.2, so slowly getting there and on track!

I think I'll just summarise the last couple of weeks, as through looking through other blogs I've realised that long blogs are BORING and its much better to breeze through them and have a giggle or 'me too!' moment rather than hear about every single thing that happened, or time that person sneezed that day.

So the first week - RPM sucked. The instructor was awesome but WHY do people like something which hurts your butt so much? doesnt make sense to me - and the instructor said 'it doesnt get better the more you do it'...?!!

The exercise made me feel great and the food was fantastic so I was rapt. I was 71.7kg on the first weigh in so was sooo excited to have lost so much in the first few days!

The second week was still good and the food was getting better and I was getting used to the site. I did my first saturday session - which I named 'Stupid Saturdays' cos they kill me! but afterwards I can almost feel the weight that has fallen off... so its good in that way!

Second weigh in I was 71.2kg, and to be honest was a bit shattered. I know 0.7kg is meant to be good but for the first week and the effort of the first SSS (1016CAL over 1:45min) I thought I was up for a least a kg... not to be.

Thats it for week 2. Will update for this week and hope for better numbers for week 3!