The weight of weights

This week is week 10 weigh in and i've been terrible. I did wednesday night's PT, then Tuesday night I played tennis, but I've been sick since Sunday and have had a spray on tan for the wedding last Saturday so haven't been able to do exercise like I usually do which has sucked and I can feel the impact of it.

When I'm sick too I comfort eat - surprisingly I have a different comfort eating style now though - its very strange! Instead of eating all the chocolate in the house, I had extra food but not too much chocolate. I ate a couple of muesli bars, some rice cakes, corn thins with avocado on it, and two pieces of honeycomb chocolate. That was my overindulgent day - can you believe it? I felt terrible after it but realised that this overeating is different than it was - still too far over my calories but because it wasnt high cal foods it was a bit better.

My weigh in this morning I nearly fainted when I saw the result. I had the wedding where I had a few drinks - mmm 4 sparkling wines and 1 beer. Lucky Im breastfeeding still so couldnt really drink too many cals! I ate a bit but was distracted by bubbs so not too much. The wedding dinner I ate FAR TOO MUCH though! I think my stomach has shrunk! I went all out and ordered what I wanted deciding it was ok to have a treat - so we all had three courses, mine was:
Pork belly on an apple puree and zucchini strips with crispy panceta on top
Steak cooked medium to perfection with potato wedges
Sticky date pudding
And yes I ate everything on all 3 plates! Then felt sick after it... oops!
I cant say I wont do it again, and to be honest it was AMAZING but I did eat too much and I should have left something on all three plates and I still would have been satisfied - possibly more so. I should know better!

Weigh-in yes get to that, so wedding, then 3 days of being sick and eating too much equals.... 1.1kg LOSS - what?! :) I had to weigh myself twice till i believed it. I honestly thought the scales were wrong!

So my thinking is that I've done heaps of weights work in the past 10 weeks, they say that that increases your metabolism - and it has to! Oh they other thing they say is that the exercise and food you ate 2 weeks ago will be what happens that week - if so I'm not looking forward to 2 weeks time!

But I'm rapt! I'm passed my 65kg goal and I am now 64.4kg. This has truly changed my life in so many ways. My goal for this program is 63kg but to be honest if I get into the 63s at all (i.e. 63.9) i'll have acheived my goal. I hope I get there and I really need to work for it this last two weeks. I cant exercise tonight as I'm still trying to get over this sickness, but I really want to push this last 2 weeks.

One thing I have found has helped me stay on track is recording everything I eat on myfitnesspal. ESPECIALLY the days where I have overeaten. This helps me stay accountable and the next day it does make me think twice about what I've eaten. I try to have cups of tea instead of eating to cut back when I'm not feeling well - but recording everything is helping dramatically.

64.4kg... I never ever thought I'd get this low... and I still have two weeks to go!

p.s I wore my Paris dress to the wedding on Saturday - that goal is achieved!

week 9

So its week 9 and we're in the last third of the transformation!

I've nearly gotten to my original goal - I was happy with this week's loss of 0.5kg, the weight loss will slow down now and thats ok, with 0.2kg last week and 0.5kg this week thats still pretty reasonable i'd say! My weight as of this Wednesday's weigh in was 65.5kg woohoo! unfortunately I still dont fit perfectly into my Diesel jeans! I fit into them... but just not perfectly which I want to by the end of this. 3 weeks to go I guess.

MB has introduced something for the last 4 weeks which are called 'accelerator days' which are Tuesdays. This means no carbs... including fruit! Its so hard to eat that many calories without carbs and to feel full! I realised how many I eat actually which is probably really bad. I love muesli bars though so thats where alot of mine come from I think. Anyway I think thats what helped with the loss this week. These days are good I think and meant to kick start your body into being faster through changing what you put into it... good idea I think.

I have a wedding this week - so by getting a tan Thursday i've ruled out exercise Thur, Fri and Saturday! Then due to the wedding commitments Sunday will be out too I'm pretty sure so this week will be a bad week probably! Ah well there will be weeks like that and not much I can do about it I don't think.

See how I go but getting there for sure... 63 is the goal but I'd be happy just to have 63 at the start of the number, which means 63.9kg and i'd be rapt! this means my goal is 1.6kg away with 3 weigh ins left... losing only 0.5kg a week I might not make it especially with the wedding this week, but I'll try!

% of body fat

All the new digital scales have body fat percentage on them. I think they work through something fancy like that they send a pulse through your body and see how quick it comes back? Anyway I remember in high school that they only had one of these and it was special and new! No idea what my % was in school. But regardless sometimes I do this, only once in a while but I did only a few weeks after I had my daughter and my % was 32%. I never really knew what that meant and still don't - and Im pretty sure its a useless number to know because the healthy range is 21-35% or something and thats such a huge range! The health profession seems to come up with all sorts of numbers which make us try to reach to see if we are 'healthy' or not!

I did the % this morning anyway just to see the change so far and its 25.3% now.
When looking up what it 'should' be all I seemed to find on Google (the go-to for any question) was this photo (http://www.builtlean.com/2012/09/24/body-fat-percentage-men-women/).

I think this only shows that everyone is different! I am 25% and certainly don't look like that photo! And I was 32% when I started and if I looked like the 30% girl I wouldn't have needed to lose anything!

I also found this (http://www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart/):

This one probably makes more sense. It looks like I fit between about 20.9%-24.5%. I dont know who decided that was 'ideal' though and why the average isnt in the ideal... but in any case thats interesting!

So my weight is now 66kg. My % is 25.3% which means that the total fat in my body is 16.6kg.
If I can lose another 3kg to get to 63kg, that will take my body fat to 13.6kg, and make 21.6% my body fat percentage. This is assuming no other variables which is never the case (e.g. water in your body at the time you measure), but interesting nonetheless. I'd be pretty happy with that weight! I am to be within 20-22% for no other reason than that this website explains that in the following way, note the highlighted bit...! I want the definition in my abs!

Body Fat Percentage Women 20-22%

This is body fat percentage is usually in the “fit” category of most body fat charts and is typical of many female athletes. Some definition in the abs is apparent, there is body fat on the arms and legs, but it’s not too pronounced. There is minimal, but some separation between muscles.

In saying all this, I've only done all this cos I am interested in numbers and seeing what happens to them with changes - I'll be happy no matter what this says :)...

My conclusion: that the body fat percentage is just another number, like the BMI which is different for everyone and just an 'interesting number' more than anything.

The weigh in

This week is week 8 and we are 2/3 of the way through the program. Its hard to believe, but at the same time its great! Things have become routine and the eating and drinking is just normal now.
My husband is helping to cook a couple of nights a week and my nights at the gym are routine now.

I must say I'm very lucky and blessed and give a shout out to my lovely husband who has supported me so well over the past 8 weeks! He cooks my meals without oil, salt, enjoys them - doesn't complain at all! We had a salad this week - a beetroot, lentils and fetta salad. And my darling hubby ate the whole thing, said it was nice (granted he had a tbone steak with it!) but no complaining at all. This makes it soooo much easier to do this! I love the food but could see how a guy eating this night after night could complain. We have things for example butter chicken with more lentils than chicken which I love! But he could easily complain about it, being a red blooded male, but never has... I'm very lucky. I think he may be benefiting from the foods being lower in cals too!

So weigh in. This week after my huge loss last week I was only hoping to remain the same.. lose a little bit would be fantastic but mostly just be the same... and I lost 0.2kg! I was rapt! I hadn't done all the exercise last week even though I tried - but ate really good so its great that its still happening. So on weigh in day yesterday I was 66kg even. 3kg to go and 4 weigh ins left!

I have tried on my clothes I'm aiming for and most fit now yay! But there are two things I want to wear that I am only a few cm and maybe a kg or two off fitting into - my diesel jeans, and my yellow rome dress. I could probably wear both now but in a week or two I think they'll be fitting great! This is very very very exciting!

Confessions...

I have begun to get complacent I think... I need to be a) logging all my calories again and b) doing the workouts again!

I am still doing the Monday and Wednesday workouts and they are great, RPM, and then a group PT session which I thoroughly enjoy. The other days are becoming harder... Not sure why - maybe I'm getting bored of it? Anyway the reason doesn't matter - the key is to start doing it again!

I find that any break in the routine puts me off, and doing the fun run and then not having done some sessions and I'm off track! I feel like my calories are bad, but in fact I think they're pretty good. I'm still not binging on chocolate (I had two pieces of 95% dark chocolate today with my coffee but for 35 cals each they aren't too bad!), and I haven't had a big alcohol night, but I know in my heart I'm not being as good as I could be.

This weeks Wednesday weigh in though didn't show a bad loss... but a GREAT one! 1.6kg down this week to 66.2kg. I weighed myself twice, then a couple of hours later just to check it was right! The fun run must have helped, but also - all females know this I think - there is one stage in the week where you are lightest, and I think I jagged weigh in this week as the lightest day! Next week therefore I don't even know if I'll lose weight haha but keep my head up and keep going.

There are a couple of things motivating me to keep going:

1) There is only 5 weeks left! It's ridiculous to stop now
2) I still have my baby belly and even though I'm smaller in weight, this is so hard to lose so I need to keep putting in the effort
3) My little sister bought the MB cook book and is logging foods and exercise and seeing it is making me want to keep doing it too! Good work Melly Bell you are inspiring me!
4) I only have 3.2kg to my goal for this program, and only 6.2kg till my overall goal. Now is the time everyone stops, these last few kg are the hardest to lose.

Now I have confessed it all I need a good kick and to keep going. The foods are great and I'm loving the recipes - but no cutting corners, all exercise must be done! I need to fit in another run this weekend, saturday afternoon or sunday, I might not be able to do the full SSS sessions but I will try (tried this morning but interrupted from my little girl waking up!), I will try again, and if all else fails I have the DVDs and I can go for a run.

NO EXCUSES! 3.2kg to go till my goal and 5 more weigh ins... I CAN GET THERE.

Half an hour of pain

I did my first fun run in about 5 years yesterday.

I wasn't sure how I'd go, I definitely have not been training at all for a run, I've been doing alot of strength and endurance training though, including RPM so I thought that might help.

Before the run

I was hoping to run 6 minute km. I figure over 5km, and without training, and with my family telling me about this 'insane hill that goes forever' that I was going to have to run up - I figured 6min per km was a pretty good time!

I ran for about 1.6km when my GPS cut through my music in my headphones and told me '1.6km done, time 9.blah minutes, and pace 5.35 mins per km'. I was rapt! When I was running prior to 12wbt it was always over 11 minutes at the 1.6km mark - sweet! Granted I hadn't gone close to the hill yet, but thought I was going ahead of pace and maybe that would give me some time to drop back once I got to the CRAZY hill.

The hill came, and yes it was crazy and went on and on... my goal was don't stop, one foot in front of the other - that was the only goal. On my way down the hill the man on the headphones cuts through again with '3.2km done, time blah.blah minutes (cant remember the minutes at this point!), pace 6.05 mines per km'. ok the hill is done, now I need to pick up the pace in order to get under 6 mins per km. With 1km to go I look down the road and see my brother close in front - I tried SO HARD to catch up, but with the effort I put in I wasn't gaining ground! I decided to pass the guy in front of me, but then couldn't breathe after that so sat there and just pushed as hard as I possible could to the end.

With not long to go the guy cut in for the final time '4.8km done, time 28.blah minutes, pace blah (only listening for time at this point!). OK 1.5mins left to finish... push push push push push. I pushed so hard that at the end it took me a while to turn off my phone cos my hands weren't working, I was gasping for breath and making those weird noises people make when they are breathing uncontrollably haha. The lady hands me a piece of paper which I could barely hold and told me '32'. I was SHATTERED. 32 minutes! I had tried so hard... took me a little while of cool down to even look at the paper - which said 30.32...! So only 32 seconds over my goal! At a look of my GPS we actually did 5.26km, and my pace was below 5:50 mins per km. SWEET!

True...

Long story I know but I was so very happy with the result :)

The only one I had done before was a run to the G.
2007 was that fun run I did, and my time was 31.06 for 5km. I ran faster this time after no training, and it was longer than 5km. An achievement I am very proud of! This 12wbt certainly is changing my life.

Halfway and 4.8kg to go

My last post was wrong... oops! I wasn't half way - but I am now! 67.8kg at today's weigh in. Only a 400g loss this week but still pretty good. My body doesn't usually lose 1kg a weeks so I was under no illusion that that was going to last! Thought i'd post a half way photo too for all of you interested to see. Wont do a full body shot - but you can tell from my face and shoulders how I've trimmed down a bit! I'll leave the full body shot for the end...

So today I am officially under my wedding weight - 67.9kg was my wedding weight! Its a bummer that my body has changed but it just means I need to work harder to tone more and need to get lower than I have been before!

I thought today I'd post about something alot of females feel - consciously or sub consciously. I have now lost 5.4kg in 6 weeks, and its strange but you think i'd feel heaps smaller all the time - 5kg or so smaller! But you only feel smaller for about a week or two at most I think. Then you start feeling as big as you were before... I think once you get to one goal (my first one was my jeans to fit good) then you are happy... then you start trying on the clothes on your next goal, and you start just feeling more like you did before! Its a strange thing, and maybe why females never feel satisfied with the weight that they are at. I am hoping to get to 63 now - so mmm 4.8kg to go in 6 weeks. Very achievable I think if I can keep my butt moving and keep food under control (I overdosed on caramel rice cakes recently - still within my calories but cant be good eating too many processed foods like that so my new goal is to eat more fruit and veggies for snacks!). I hope that when I get to that weight I'll be happy - but I wonder whether we are ever really happy as females?

I'll wait and see - and you guys will know after 6 weeks I guess if I end up happy or still feeling sluggish even after losing - if I get there - it will be 10.2 kg all up. Wait and see how I go!