I've got the music in me

You know when you're out running and a certain song comes on your ipod and you just get into a zone and run the crap out of it?  Your "power song"?

Here's mine;



Coz I'm a lame-ass techy, I've discovered that this song is 82 beats per minute.  And that 82 bpm (x2) will have you running a kilometre in around 5:21.  How do I know that I hear you ask?

http://jog.fm/workout-songs/at/82/bpm

I've also discovered that jog fm is available as an iphone app which can run (pardon the pun) in the background while your tunes are playing.  It picks your pace, scans your playlist and delivers you songs of a similar bpm so you can keep your legs pumping at the same pace.

As my running is improving it's time for a new playlist aiming for a warm up at 8 min/km, joggy bits at 82 & 164bpm for a 5.5 minute pace and a couple of new  power songs to push me just under 5 min/km.  It'll be daggy eighties stuff, but I'll be loving it :)

Care to share your power song...

New round, new Blogger challenge

How I love a Blogger challenge! This round is being hosted by the VERY inspirational Leonie who I have followed since I began this program.  Check out her blog here - it's a great read!

On to this week's challenge;

1. Describe yourself in less than fifty words.  
Here's the ABC of me;
Athletic
Brave
Creative
Determined
Engaged
Funny
Grateful
House-proud
Intelligent
Just
Knowledge-seeking
Loving
Mother of two
Nourished
Optimistic
Passionate
Quietly confident
Reformed
Sugar-free
Tough
Under control
Volunteer
Work-a-holic
Xtreme
Yoghurt-eating
Zealous

2. This program is called a transformation. When you signed up for this round what was it about yourself you wanted to transform?
This is my third round in a row - so it's less about transformation now and more about cementation (I know that's not a word, but I'm going to run with it).  I want to make sure that these habits stay for life and be the best version of me possible.

3. What is it about yourself you are happy with right now? It can be related to your mind, body or soul, and of course there may well be more than one thing you are happy with.
At the age of 44 I can honestly say I have never been healthier, more stable minded, thinner and generally happy that I am now.  I've worked hard to lose this 30kg and I'm really proud of myself and the new lifestyle I've forged.

4. What aspect of this program do you think will present you with the toughest challenge. What are you going to focus on to ensure you feel successful at the end of the twelve weeks? How is your answer to number 3 going to help you overcome this challenge?
I wanted to do Lean & Strong this round but I'm SUCH a chicken in the gym. It's something about looking stupid if I do it wrong, or not knowing what to do, or feeling out of place.  I will work on this throughout the 12 weeks and get to a point of "comfort" in the gym.

5. What is it you look forward to the most in the next twelve weeks?
I love the food.  I love the exercise plans.  but what I look forward to the most is the friendships that form as a part of this program.  I've met some AMAZING (and I know it's an over-used word, but they truly are) chicks through 12wbt which has been an unexpected but delightful bonus.

6. You’ve now completed at least three days of the program. What has surprised you the most about how you’ve coped with these first days in the twelve weeks?
I'm surprised by how much harder the exercise program seems this round.  I've REALLY had to work at it and have been in DOMS city for days after.  My mindset has also been a welcome surprise - I'm just getting on with the workouts instead of thinking up imaginary reasons why I can't or shouldn't do them.

7. Can you describe what you want to see, think and feel when you look in the mirror on Sunday 18th November 2012.
The end of this round pretty much co-incides with the 12 month anniversary of my back surgery and therefore the start of this weight-loss journey (that has become so much more!).  I have a MAJOR work event on the 18th.  The kind where a room full of people have to listen to me talk for a few hours.  I want to look into the mirror and see a calm, centered and bloody hot chick smiling back at me and ready to lead the delegation into the next 12 months.  I want to reflect confidence in myself personally and professionally.  And when I do, when I get through this event and meet the challenges that will come head on, I will truly know that I'm ready to continue this without 12wbt.

Thursday-ness (a long post about nothing in particular)

I love Thursdays.  It's my mid-week weekend that I get to spend pretty much however I want.  Usually, during the busy season at work, I'll do exactly that - work.  But not this week. Nuu Ah.

Tried something new this morning (brave, right?).  Deep Water Workout class lead by the lovely Nina.  What a workout it was!  Racing heart rate. Engaged core. Muscle fatigue with no joint soreness.  Ahhhh.  Yes, it may be exercise for oldies, but hey, I am getting on a bit :)  Really loved it and will definitely be back!

By the time I got home and showered I was STARVING, so quickly threw this together;

2 x Corn Thins - soy and linseed 47 cals +

Coles Italian style Tuna  59 cals =

106 calories of YUM!

It's the first time in months and months and months that I've hung washing out on the line.  Exciting, eh?

And followed it up with a little shopping, a little sushi, a little more shopping.

After a nanna nap, brought on by that deep water workout for sure, I challenged our culinary comfort zone and tried something NEW for dinner; Meat pie with mushy peas and a side salad.

It was so good "the man" rated it 9 out of 10 and will happily eat it again.  Geez he's been a trouper with his food experimentation.

So that's the end of my really mediocre yet incredibly awesome day :)

Weigh In - R3 - Week 1

You'd think that a 900g gain on the back of a 300g gain the previous week would send me visiting stress city for a week long vacation, but not this time scales.  You guys don't fool me for a minute.



Current Weight: 68.3kg
Last week:      67.4kg
Week's loss:   +0.9kg   
So far:        -28.7kg 




A couple of weeks ago I had a doctor enforced exercise ban for the two weeks prior.  I kept up the clean eating, coz that's just how we live now, but in week 11 I had a massive loss of 2.5kg.  Sure I celebrated as it got me down to the 30kg lost point, but I knew that it was mostly a loss of all that muscle I had been building up throughout the round.

Naturally when I started exercising again, the muscle would find it's way home, and I must have left the light on coz I can sure feel their return right about now.  Achy, achy, achy - but in a good way.

So mentally, I'm going back to that 2.5kg loss and subtracting the past fortnight's 1.2kg gain, which still gives me a 1.3kg loss over the last 3 weeks.  Plus my clothes are looser - even my brand new size 10's have room.

This time last round I would have freaked out to see gains like this. I'm just going to keep on doing my thing, which is actually Mish's thing, and trust that my body will balance itself out over time and find it's own healthy weight range.  But please can that be below 70kg???

Fully sick maaaaate

Day one of a new round and it's all woohoo in my head today!  Lurve a new round.  A chance to re-set any crappy habits that may have crept in.  To forgive any slip-ups, and to re-set goals for the coming 3 months.

This morning I woke up still undecided on which exercise program I would follow.  My time trial was good enough for advanced, so the choices were Lean & Fit, Lean & Strong or 10km running.

After a 10 minute internal debate, backing it up for another round of Lean & Fit seemed like a plan.  But... this time I would make sure I did ALL of each session at maximum intensity and a faster pace.

I haven't been running well, or far lately, but...

and the torture doesn't end there...

I wasn't feeling too great after those Ice Skaters & it was welcome to spew-town for me.  Never mind - I got straight back to it and hit that abs circuit out of the park.

Day 1: 674 calories burnt.

Food was great too;

Bran with fruit & yoghurt (with a sprinkle of chia seeds & LSA)

Favo all time meal - Salmon stir fry - a Monday night staple in this house :)

All in all, I'm pretty happy with day 1.  Bring. It. On.

An act of balance

Some days I feel as though I have completely got my shite together.  You know those days when you're organised, calm, in control, on time?  The days that everything just runs smoothly, no one pisses you off and life is...well...good.

The last couple of days haven't been like this.

I'm tired, hungry, bored yet busy, restless yet lazy.  I'm in a bit of a funk.  And my mood is having flow on effects too.  The scales - God love them - have decided that although I'm exercising most days and eating well (and creating a daily calorie deficit) they would prefer to be a whole kilogram higher than Wednesday's weigh in.  So I'm having a little freak out that my 30kg loss is about to be eroded.  And I'm also wondering in chicken and egg style - what came first?
Is it my mood that's effecting the scales, or the scales that are putting a downer on my state of mind?

I've also noticed that JFDI (just freaking do it) isn't cutting it this week.  I'm busy and under a fair amount of pressure - both time and persuasive argument type - at work, but have rarely left my desk before 7pm this week.  When I get home, I'll happily cook the healthy dinner from my meal plan, but then having to clean up the kitchen as well is really. starting. to. piss. me. off.  And until now it hasn't.  So much so that Thursday night, the old boy went off to his guitar lesson and offered to bring home dinner.  We used to live on takeaway - seriously, probably 4 nights a week if not more.  And as much as I wanted to say, "no, we don't eat like that any more", I just had nothing.  No JFDI.  Just KFC.  Which unfortunately doesn't stand for Kicking Fat to the Curb.  I gotta say, it was disgusting.  Tasteless.  Fatty.  Soggy.  But I still downed a small chips and sweet chilli twister.  Blah!

So many of the girls in our local 12wbt crew have described similar lapses in mojo, but until now I hadn't experienced one for myself.  I guess I was arrogant enough to think that after living this life for 9 months, every bad habit of my past was exactly that, in the past.

But I have a plan to restore the balancing act.  I'm going to cut myself some slack for the next two days.  No pressure to exercise.  No stressing about food. Just get through this last weekend of work madness, have a cleansing day of light diet and a long walk on Monday, and hopefully, by being kind to myself instead of beating myself up, I'll find that mojo and his friends move back in for the Spring.

Weigh in - R2 - Week 12

That's it!  Round 2 is over.  And it feels weird.

Somewhere in the midst of this round (a round is a 12 week long body transformation program) it stopped being a program that had a beginning and an end, and just became the way we live now.

Round 3, which I've  also signed up for, rolls straight into this one, rather than the four weeks delay while the "pre-season" tasks are revealed.  This is just fine and dandy with me, coz they're now ingrained habits, but there is one pre-season task that I MUST re-visit and that's goal setting.  But me thinks that's an entire post of it's own!

Anyhoo...



Current Weight: 67.4kg
Last week:      67.1kg
Week's loss:   +0.3kg   
So far:        -29.6kg


As you can see I got incredibly close to my 67kg target.  In fact, at one stage in the week I was smack on the mark, but as usually happens, Wednesday is not known for being my skinniest day of the week, and I've had a slight increase.

Has my round been a success?  I certainly think so, but I'll let you judge for yourself...

I didn't just lose another 5.2kg after I was already in the healthy weight range.  I also lost centimetres in places I didn't expect, and gained a heck of a lot of fitness. At 44, I'm definitely in the best shape AND health of my adult life...

...and am without doubt the HAPPIEST I have EVER been :)