Another week done

So, here are my numbers for this week. 
 

WEEK 3 - (New) 13th August

Summary:

Weight	97 kg
Waist	85 cm
Hips	116 cm
Bust	104 cm
Thighs	114 cm
Thigh (R)	74 cm
Belly	116 cm
Upper Arm (L)	37 cm
Neck	36 cm

To be honest, I know they are still large, but at least, I was kind of expecting them to be.  Last week, when I didn't go to the gym on Thursday, it threw me off balance.  Where I had been treading so well, I slid down pretty quickly.

You may know that when the you are tired, your body craves junk food.  Fat, salt, sugar, all the stuff that is a quick boost of energy.  I am definitely one of those people who it noticeable happens too.  On Thursday, I did miss the gym, but I didn't go for a walk like on Tuesday.  I had to do grocery shopping.  By the time  I got home, it was after 8 and I did not feel like cooking any good food.  Instead, I succumbed to not one, but TWO microwaveable pasta packs.  To which I added cheese.  That was all the trigger I needed to continue eating foods that were highly processed or high in salt or sugar.  As a result, I think my measurements are a true reflection of the amount of salt and sugar I ate on Thursday night, Friday and Saturday.  By Saturday night, I realised I hadn't eaten anything good in two days, and I was able to turn myself back on track. 

I think I need to keep up the exercise.  When I exercise regularly, I eat well.  I don't know if it's a conscious thing, where I because I'm exercising, I don't want to undo all my hard work, or a subconscious reaction where my body is craving good, clean, healthy food to keep up the energy stores.  It's something I've noticed in the past.  I just need to make sure I keep moving and keep exercising. 

I have a late night at work today and tomorrow, meetings running until 5.30pm, but I'm keeping my gym bag ready and packed and in the car so that I can go after work.  Tonight, Kelly and I are going to go to Circuit for Life.  I hate it, but it's good at the same time.  A mix of strength exercises (medicine ball lifts, kettlebell swings, tricep dips, chin-ups, etc) and cardio (rower machine, burpees, shuttle run, starjumps, and so on).  When I was going in April-May, I really enjoyed seeing how much I improved, just over three to four weeks - to the point where I could actually start to do burpees!  I'm by all means, the slowest, unfittest person there, but most everyone is encouraging.  And there's always something that I find easy and can do multiple of, like squats, or something that I challenge myself to do the most of.

Well, I'd better eat breakfast and dash off to work, or else I won't get everything done in time by this afternoon.

-SunnyDuckling

Still no Gym

Hi all, quick update. 

For starters, thank-you to the people who've jumped on board with me and have chosen to follow my blog.  It makes me feel a whole lot more motivated to know that there are people watching me and offering advice and support.  

I still haven't made it to the gym yet!  Thursday, I was so caught up finishing a report before I went, that when I emailed it, I realised it was ten past six - I missed the gym!  However, didn't go for a walk like on Tuesday, because I had to go grocery shopping.  Again, I analysed my spending and I spent $33 on food that I could have done without.  However, I spent more money on stocking up on good food, so maybe this is a good idea to keep analysing and watching my spending. 

No exercise, Friday or Saturday, although I could have gone for a long walk Sat, but I didn't.  I also didn't eat very well from Thursday onwards, mainly from coming back late enough from grocery shopping that I didn't feel like cooking.  So I ate 'convenient' foods, but not healthy ones.  I didn't start eating properly until Saturday night.  Outlines for me that I need to start planning my food and writing it up somewhere I see it.  And reminding myself that I have perfectly good food already sitting in my fridge.

Today, I got back to the swing of things with eating healthily (a salad for lunch - go me!), drinking plenty of water, and go for a walk.  A medium distance walk of 4.63 km.  Added onto my tally and I'm going to need to get my butt into gear if I'm going to meet this 100km challenge!  Nearly halfway through the month, and still not halfway.  Better get cracking!  But not now, as it's late and I am getting up early in the morning for my Monday Measurements.

-SunnyDuckling

All geared up and nowhere to go

So, if you read my previous post, you know I had planned to go to the gym today.  I was packed; I was ready:  locked up at work, hopped in the car and was ready to roll.  Turned up at the gym, pulled into the carpark… very few cars.  Was it the time of day?  Was it because it's winter?  Hmm…

Walked in, desk girl greets me with a big smile.  "Haven't seen you in a while".  "No, no... got lazy".  "Are you here for the class?  It's not on tonight!" 

Damn.

I have mentioned (more than once I think) that it’s winter right now.  And that means illness.  So Jeremy, who runs all the classes, had to cancel.

Bummer. 

I was so ready to go!  Kelly was going to meet me and ….. No class.  I even joked to Danielle (the reception girl) that it's not allowed to work like that.  I finally got myself all geared up to go for the first time in months and the class wasn't on.

Even though it was past dusk, I decided I really wanted to exercise.  So I quickly drove on home, threw on some trackpants and a jumper and headed out for a walk.  It was much too dark to go the route where I ran on Sunday, but I still decided to go for a long walk.  I was making good pace too, under the streetlights.  There was one section of the footpath that went behind houses and was unlit, so I slowed down there.  Overall, I added another 4.18km to my 100km challenge.  Hooray!

So, I'm going to keep everything packed and ready, sitting in the car, and will go for Thursday to the gym.  It's Fitbox.   Some cardio, some boxing techniques.  I've only ever gone twice before.  Once earlier this year, and once two years ago.  It's a tough class, but I'm going to do it!

-SunnyDuckling

Week 1 - Not according to plan

Hmm, well, I have said that I want to get back into the swing of being fit and losing weight, and yet, I haven't committed to it as well as I could have.  I've been the chicken in the bacon and eggs analogy - involved, but not committed. 

I only realised tonight that I said that I would start again last week.  I had the plan of daily exercise and everything.

Brutal honesty time:

Did I follow it? No

Did I make any effort to eat better?  Only a little

Did I meet the daily exercise target? No

Did I do things that helped or hindered my effort?  Hindered. 
I went to bed late, didn't stay adequately hydrated, forgot to take any iron supplements, ate badly - no where near enough greens. 

Did I weigh-in or take measurements so I could get a better idea of where I am at and where I need to get to?  No

Did I do things that sabotaged my efforts? Yes

So, I don't even know where my official Week 1 (new) should go, because I had planned for it to be last week, a nice start being the beginning of August, but somehow I let all that slip.  Maybe having my weigh-in time during the middle of the week wasn't working?  So I decided to try it out for Monday morning.  Monday morning will be before two gym days, and after my weekend.  Accounting whether I had a good weekend or not.  So, that's done.  Monday for weigh-in and Measurements.  There we go, catchy title: Measurement Monday.  Starting now, I will have Measurement Monday, and this morning's will be week 2.  I still think I'll take both my weight and measurements each week.  You can see my this week's results in the table below - and also in 'results' tab up top.

Additionally, yesterday morning I did some other exercise! I didn't even think about it until just now.  When I got up yesterday, I rolled straight out of bed and onto the floor so I could do some sit-ups.  I managed about 30.  I probably should have pushed myself to do 40, because if I had done 40 sit-ups once, I know I can convince myself to do 40 again.  And when I was on holidays, I managed to do 40 of them.  So, going to keep on trying and keep on working on that too.

This afternoon, Imogen and I went for a walk again, but I'm really disappointed I went because it was a really short walk.  Only 2.8km.  And it seemed that Imogen was dawdling.  We started off strong, but after 1 km, Imogen just slowed right down.  Maybe during the week doesn't work for her, and we should stick to it being a weekend activity.  I only went for a walk today because I hadn't packed for the gym and had nothing prepared for dinner when I got back.  So I made the decision of food first, exercise second.  But now, I'll have food that I can bring with me to work to eat in the afternoon to energise me before going to the gym with Kelly.  Good food too, like steamed broccoli.  So, in lieu of a good long walk, I instead did some squats, to make my legs feel like I had worked them out.  I managed to get to 20 squats.  My legs are a sore now, but in a good way.  I hope they don't feel too sore tomorrow!

So, now, week 2 results.  Have to be honest.  I'm not sure what to make of them.  When I weighed myself 2 weeks ago, the scale was sitting at 96kg.  Not so this morning.  I'm really debating whether I should get digital scales just to have some better accuracy.  My other measurements aren’t all that bad however.  Certainly not as large as the numbers were when I first started back in April.  I don't know what's going on.  I take my measurements first thing in the morning and I'm in front of the bathroom mirror, to make sure I'm measuring at the same spot each time.

WEEK 2 - (New) 6th August

Summary:

Weight	99 kg
Waist	84.5cm
Hips	116 cm
Bust	101 cm
Thighs	116 cm
Thigh (R)	71.5 cm
Belly	115 cm
Upper Arm (L)	37 cm
Neck	36 cm

Oh well.  I'll just use these numbers as motivation while at the gym tomorrow!  Feel the burn baby.  Speaking of which, I suppose I had better pack my gym bag so I have no way of getting out of going. 

-SunnyDuckling.

Workout buddy is back!

Hey hey!
Quick update. Kelly, who was here in May for work experience is back for 8 weeks (until the end of the quarter) on an internship.  This is good for many reasons. Apart from Kelly being dedicated to learning the ropes, and open to suggestions to get the most out of client sessions, and being an all-round cool gal, she is a fitness-junkie.  She normally runs for fitness, but as it is so cold Kel's not too keen about running at the moment. Additionally, being here on training, means she's putting in longer hours at work and not getting outside before it gets dark. 

But! She's keen to come along with me to gym sessions.  We've made plans to go along tomorrow evening, to Tummy-Butts-and-Thighs.  It's what Kelly came along to last time, so she does know what to expect.  And it's a good one to wean myself back into going.

I know I do well when I get into the habit of going to the gym.  It's once I skip a session or two that I really start to let things slide.  In fact, I could have gone many times in the last two weeks, but I've just put it off, or justified in some way why I can't (not enough water/food/sleep that day.  Need to prep for next day's work.  Haven't packed gym bag, etc, etc).  I think it's the first one that's the hardest.  Once I go to one session, then it will start to feel normal (and less anxiety-inducing) to keep going to another and another.

Bring on TBT tomorrow!

-Sunny Duckling