Step 1: Health

Oh my goodness. All I can say is that there is one primary reason why I am super happy for my weight loss - THE SHOPPING!!!!! I bought my 2nd Cue dress today. It looks bloody awesome on. Size 12. I can't remember the last time I wore something labelled size 12! And I went for a bit of a browse around Myer. So many amazing summer dresses and tops and skirts out right now. Gosh I just want to go on a massive shopping spree. My willpower muscle is now getting flexed for the benefit of my credit card rather than my waist line!!

I did it!!! I finally freakin did it. Well, not like I really fully tried before. But last night I finally burnt my first 1,000 calories. And as I'm an auditor, I'm all about the evidence, and here it is............  It felt so amazing to achieve that! I worked so hard. I sweated buckets in that gym. Pretty sure they would have had to mop up after I left. Haha. Just kidding. As well as being nice and sweaty, after the ordeal my feet ached, my legs burned, and my face looked like a tomato. One feeling I had that I had never experienced before was that my chest felt so short of breath that I could not physically take a deep enough breath to give it what it needed. It was a weird feeling. It went away after about an hour though. All that pain didn't matter. I'd hit my 1,000 calories and it felt so amazing!!! What a rush! How did I do it? First I did a Pump class at the gym. Then I basically went on a treadmill and did Michelle's "Learn to Run" week

Hmmm, so today Mish posted in the forums a challenge for everyone. She's obviously trying to accelerate our results over these last four weeks of the program (as she's introduced no carb Tuesday as well). The challenge is to burn 1,000 calories three times this week. Oh my god! I've never reached the 1,000 mark. The closest I've ever gotten is 900 calories yesterday in the "wk 8 mini milestone" which went for two hours. And then I've hit the 750 mark like twice. Otherwise it's always between 300-600 calories burnt in an hour. Well I'm up for the challenge! I'm a bit nervous about it given I haven't done it before. But I really had a shonky period across weeks 4-8. I was not impressed with my performance (or lack of) whatsoever  (so many ups and downs and not too much weight loss). I really wasn't very consistent with the diet or exercise at all. I was probably on target for 50-70% of each week. Which isn't good enough to be honest

After my "celebrating small wins" post yesterday, I am finding myself very unhappy today. This is for a few reasons. But they are really playing on my mind. Last night I went to bed at 11:30pm. Was still awake at 1:30am. Stressed out and not getting to sleep. I'm now awake at 2:30pm (just in time to watch the Melbourne Cup), after staying home from work today. I'm really sick! Being sick is so frustrating!!!! I can barely breathe out of my nose. I can't seem to clear the gunk out of my throat or nose. And my body is just sore. I've been sick since last Thursday. It's been too long. Maybe it's time to head to the doctors? I'm not sure. It's just so frustrating. I hate being sick and not being able to get up and about and take care of things I need to. The other things I'm unhappy about is the stupid client I'm working on at the moment. I've been working on them for about 3 months now and it is never ending. They are so needy and ho

My Stats: Starting weight: 91.8kgs Wednesday's weigh in: 83.2kgs Current BMI: 30.56 (almost down from the "Obese" class to the Overweight class) This week's loss: 1.3kgs Total loss to date: 8.6kgs!!!! AMAZING! What has been happening? I took last Monday off work and went up to Mt Tamborine for a long weekend away. The accommodation I was staying at didn't have cooking facilities so I was pretty restricted on what I could eat - being eating out. And I'm happy to report that even though I wasn't counting calories I still thought about every single thing I ate and made sure it was ok. I had a treat with some famous "home-made fudge" up there. But didn't eat any crap. And I still managed to lose over 1kg!!! Just goes to show it's not that hard to eat well even if you can't cook. You just need to make sure you make the best choice possible of the options you have, and you can still keep those calories low. I also did my “Super Sat

So today's weigh in didn't go too well. I didn't lose anything! On an upside I didn't gain anything either. So I'm still at a 7.4kg loss. Which is still pretty impressive. But to go from losing on average 1kg a week to nothing. Something was wrong. So I followed Mish's advice and did my "audit" of the week gone. I can pin point my non-loss quite easily. It is a combination of the following: I exercised once since the last weigh in - bootcamp. That is it. Not good! Friday night - a shitload of alcohol was drunk and a pizza for dinner - blew my calories way out. The only reason I got away with drinking last time is because I didnt eat dinner. So it is obvious now what works and what doesnt work. Last night - I binged on crap and blew my calories way out. It was pretty damn obvious when I put it down like that. I did some bad things this week. I let my busy-ness at work take me off focus from my goals. Anyway, I know I shouldn't of done those th

Oh gosh. I had my worst blow out yet tonight. 800 calories over our limit all eaten tonight. Just then actually. I couldn't stop eating. I haven't had too many blow outs on this program yet - probably about 3. So this being my fourth. I don't know. I know I've done the wrong thing. Why did I do it? I'm not sure. I've been busy at work and working evenings and on my weekend for the past three weeks. I keep thinking I won't exercise, I'll just focus on work, get it done, then can get back into the exercise program. Instead I've barely been exercising, and I had a blow out tonight and on Friday last week. I'm so tired from work. I'm just so tired. I'm not really sure what to do. I guess my weigh in tomorrow will bring reality to the forefront. I noticed someone on the forum mentioned that her "week 4" is happening in week 6. The week where the focus is going, the excitement and motivation is wearing off. Maybe now would be a go

I had a red flag day last night. Birthday dinner at one of my face Italian restaurants - the verve. Plus drinks afterwards for a friends going away. I ate a seafood pizza - should have done a salad. And drank ALOT!!! I only drank vodka, lime & sodas - only 60 calories a drink, however I drank a crap load of em!! I haven't calculated how many calories I went through yesterday - I'll work it out soon. However right now im slightly nursing a hangover and going for an afternoon of fishing to spend some time with the bf. He's been away all week. I hope I haven't blown it too bad.

My response to this week's blogging challenge: See the challenge here: Blogging Challenge #4 Theme of the Week: "Mini Milestone Week" 1. Describe in 25 words or less (why is it always 25 words) the you that you were before 12wbt Lazy. Tired. Sad. Down. Stressed out. Pretty depressed about my life to be honest. I hated where my life was and what I looked like . 2. Now - who are you now?? Happy. Thinner. Tougher. Someone who puts themselves first, goes running after work, and doesn't eat fast food. Someone who did the Mt Cootha Kokoda Trail!!!!!!!!! 3. What has the hardest been the hardest thing to make habit THIS ROUND? The toning days!!! I do not have strong muscles at all. I hate the soreness the next day. So I have not done my toning days very much at all. It has not been good and I am not proud of it. It shows in my fitness test - I was able to do the exact same number of pushups I could in a minute, four weeks ago. I did not improve at all in the stre

I forgot to mention in my previous post the enjoyable brekkie I had after my Mt Cootha trek. It was a recipe in Michelle's program that I adapted slightly because a. I don't like tomatoes, and b. It was only about 200 calories, so I still had at least 100 calories I could add to it as well as the calories of the food I didn't include. Oh my gosh it was so delicious!! It's called "Pocket Rocket's Big Breakfast". My version included: 1 x slice of mixed grain toast 2 x poached eggs (poaching them with 1 teaspoon of vinegar and in a saucepan making a whirlpool out of the water - look at them - made to perfection!!) 50g x lean shaved ham 20g x baby spinach leaves Sprinkle of cracked pepper Calories: 296 I definitely earnt that brekkie. It tasted so damn good and I washed it down with a coffee. Love the hot weekend brekkie's on Michelle's program. I can enjoy a good cooked breakfast without going and pigging out on fried crap at a cafe.

Yesterday marked the last day of week four of the 12wbt. And per Michelle's instructions, we were to take on a mini-milestone challenge. The Queensland 12wbt crew had quite alot of events planned around Brissy for me to choose from, or I could choose to just stick with Mish's planned programs per the site. I thought I better go to an organised event so I pushed myself to the extreme. I opted for the Mt Coot-tha Kokoda Track walk/jog. I had absolutely no idea what I was in for, apart from the fact that Mt Cootha is (stating the obvious).... A MOUNTAIN!! And it was named after the official Kokoda Trail, so that says something. I started the morning following my gps there, getting nice and lost on the way, only to turn up right at 7am - when everyone was getting the run down from the trainers and jogging to begin the warm up. I was slightly embarrassed to turn up late, but then again, at least I didn't give up when I got lost and just drive home and go back to bed. The o

First day of week 3. So much to talk about. Had a rollercoaster week. Ups and downs and loop the freakin loop. Did my head in nice and proper. Well anyway, we'll start with the easy stuff. Today: Stats Calories in: 855 (out of 1200 - WOO HOO!!) You'll see that I needed that. Calories out: 370 How? Warmup: Tight & Toned DVD warmup Workout: Walking from home to the park, Learn to Run (Outdoors) program - 15 minutes - 1 min jogging, 1.5min walking, then walking home. Cool Down: Tight & Toned DVD cool down So all in all, a quick half hour to get to 370 calories. Pretty happy with that. The reason I had cut my workout down to half hour is due to some crazy work commitments at the moment. I really need to do about three hours each evening before bed to stay afloat, but alas, it is 10:39pm right now and I have not started. I know I'm probably coming across as a procrastinator right now, as I am blogging instead of working, but I promised myself I would immerse

So I haven't done so well with the program over the last couple of days. I haven't done terribly, but I haven't done well. Wednesday morning I woke up, got ready for work, and as I was eating brekkie I started feeling dizzy. I had cramps in my belly as well, and felt like I needed to throw up. I stayed in bed for the day and didn't go to work. Thursday morning, I had a very similar feeling. Dizzy, needed to be sick, sore stomach. I obviously didn't exercise on these days. And Wed I went over my 1200 calories by about 350 calories. I just didn't feel like following the program. I felt like eating crap. Maccas, pizza, chocolate. Anything would be good. I didn't give in too badly. I ate two little caramello koalas. I went to the doctors tonight. She doesn't know what is wrong with me. All of my symptoms are disconnected from the other so it is not telling her one thing. Terry thinks it is a combination of my body detoxing (as Mish has said would ha

Wk 2 Day 1 - Fitness day. After bootcamp yesterday and having stiff legs all day I was dreading trying to burn 500 calories today. But I did it. My hamstrings were killing me before and after. I stretched them before and after. Even got Terry to stretch them for me. But I did it. Another 520 calories burnt! Woo hoo. Can't decide whether I should stick with a toning day tomorrow (as per Mish's plan) or maybe do a Pilates DVD and help out those muscles.

The Stats: Eating Plan (how many calories consumed): M:     1,237 T:      1,247 W:     1,141 T:      1,094 F:      1,167 S:      1,262 S:      1,006 Exercise Plan (how many calories burned in an exercise session): M:     520 (Fitness Test & Cardio DVD) T:      353 (Toning DVD) W:    526 (Cardio DVD) T:      235 (Part of a Toning DVD) F:      Missed the exercise session. Tsk tsk! S:      Rest Day S:      550 (Boot camp session) All in all not too bad a week. I was short of calories burned on my toning days, but apparently that isn't too big a deal. I missed 1 day of exercise due to just not pushing myself through my excuses. I was tired, but I didn't look at my excuses and solutions and JFDI! I also didn't burn the 1,000 Super Session on the weekend. But my aim is to kill that this weekend. I've gotten through one week, now I just need to improve on that. Boot camp was pretty cool. It was my first ever session. It was organised by an Alumni

So I've signed up to do a "blogging challenge" with fellow 12wbters Each week a challenge comes out, from the hard work of Shrinking Kath (see her amazing blog here: http://courage2start.blogspot.com/ ). Then everyone up for the challenge blogs away, and we can all read each other's responses. So here it is. Bold (the challenge set). Non-bold (my response). 1. Describe yourself in 25 words or less. You can get straight to the point - or bring your creativity into play. Feisty. Emotional. Bossy. Open-minded. Talkative. A stress-head. Loves to laugh and giggle. Very silly. Very loyal. Extroverted. The tortoise (not the hare). 2. What brings you to 12wbt? Getting fitter? Losing weight? (Gaining weight??) Are you first timer, a repeat offender?? I am a first timer. I am here to lose weight. I've got about 25kgs to lose in total, to get me into a healthy BMI. I'd love to lose that amount of weight. What lead me to this program, or the typical "how did

How a m I feeling? Well so far I'm feeling pretty amazing. I've stuck to the calorie counts very closely. I've been a little bit hungry, but not too bad. I've been very good with my prioritising too - always putting the 12wbt program before work (overtime work). Always preparing my meals, getting my exercise in, etc etc. I had my weigh in this morning too. I weighed in at 88.4kgs. That is a 1.3kg loss since last Thursday (so 6 days ago). Pretty happy with that! I haven't even been on the strict calorie intake and exercising for the whole time - I only started on Monday. Friday and Saturday I had fairly big nights - drinking! Can't wait till next Wednesday to see the effects of a full week. One thing I'm realising as well, is that I actually feel thinner. When I'm hiking up my hill on the way home with my laptop on my back, I actually feel lighter. Like I'm carrying less weight as I treck up. Like my legs aren't as heavy as they usually are.

Day 1 of the program today. It was a success. Calories in: 1,236 Calories out: 520 Fitness test result: I'm a beginner :( I'm so much less fitter than I thought I was. Another reality check to go with the one the before photo gave me. Never mind. It's all about improving isn't it. Other points to note: 1. The food was really tasty! 2. I barely felt hungry during the day even though I stuck to my calorie intake. Anyway, I'm off to bed. I'm so damn tired and sore!

I've had quite a crazy weekend. I had a birthday party on Friday night (a lovely friend from work's birthday), and a concert on Saturday night (Birds of Tokyo). And both events could not have come at a worse time. I really needed to spend the weekend working. I am soooooooo behind. Friday night, was so depressing. I was trying to get dressed for the birthday - I have no clothes outside of super daggy clothes for lounging around the house, or my corporate wear. I have slowly out grown all of my clothes in my entire wardrobe. Lets face reality though, I have slowly eaten my way into being too fat for all of my wardrobe!! And I haven't replaced clothes in the mean time. So after trying on absolutely every item of clothing before the Fri night outing, I resulted in wearing work clothes. And just claiming I came straight from work. How pathetic and sad is that! I felt so depressed doing that. But I didn't have a choice. Everything else looked terrible and just accentuated

12wbt starts tomorrow. And I've done all the recommended measurements of myself to track my progress through the program. I've also taken a "before" photo in a bikini. God what a reality check that was!!! How depressing. I had never seen myself like that. Even my full length mirror at home told me a more lighter side of reality. Oh well, I'm glad it's done. I needed that shock. It's something to work on now. I'm not comfortable posting my photo on this site just yet (maybe when I've lost some weight), but here are my measurements. I will be making these numbers smaller! Weight: 89.7kg Chest: 104cm Waist: 109cm Widest: 121cm Right thigh: 73cm Left thigh: 73cm

Today I have had a bit of a rollercoaster of feelings about my job. I dunno if I can do it. I've been forum posting on 12wbt, and here is a bit of an extract of my day: Thoughts at 10am: As soon as I give myself a structured program to follow in terms of diet and exercise, and then a large list of work piles up that I don’t have time to finish in my 37.5 hour week, I lose the plot. I get really stressed and the first thing that is dropped so I can get out of the quicksand is my diet and exercise program. And I’m feeling on the verge of that this very minute. About 15 minutes ago I got given a pile of work that will drag through to my weekend. Not to mention I am sitting in an office with all of these people talking at the top of their lungs while they are working. Just shut up!! I want to get my work done now so it’s not during my wknd!!!!!! Argh. I know I fall into this trap every single time I start a new “diet”. I’m trying to recognise it so I don’t let it happen again,

Well, it's taken some time getting my gearing up task completed. Alot of picking the task up, buying a couple of things, putting it down, then picking it up a couple of days later. But I have finally done it. I'm all geared up. And here's the photo to prove it: Woo hoo. It only took me twenty bloody minutes to figure out how to get that photo into the blog the right way up! Computers aren't one of my strong suits, I'm sure you've worked that out by reading that sentence. For some reason it just didn't want to come into the blog how I rotated it. What a headache. Never mind, it's all sorted now. Onto my awesome gear! It was so much fun gathering all of that stuff together. Well, most of it. My fave bit - the gym bag. Just look at it! Love it!!! It's a nike bag. I swear it's like a hand bag, disguised as a gym bag. Or vice versa. I love it. I just wanted a really convenient bag that can fit on my shoulder underneath my handbag while I trek down

Ok, so now all of my posts are up to date from my little hand written diary I was keeping at first. Now to revise and reflect on where I am up to: Achievements: Tasks 1, 2, 3 and 5 done. Most of task 4 done. Still some tweeking. Exercised three days so far this week, out of five. Not too bad for the first week back into it. My legs are quite sore at the moment but that's ok. That's a good sign! Not So Good: Had Red Rooster for dinner. Oh boy! I caved. The 12 weeks haven't started, however I do want to improve from now onwards. Maybe I need to post in the Confessions forum and get some feedback from the 12wbt team. Anyway, first time since starting the program. I lasted two weeks and two days. Not great, but an improvement. To-Do List: Tomorrow morning - time to finish gearing up. I'm off to pick up my heart rate monitor from the courier company. Then to the shops to get some barbells, a step, and maybe some more workout clothes. I should get socks too! I

Wednesday, 31st August: If you read my last post, you would be at the point where I was trying to tackle the task Mish set of committing to myself, my family/loved ones, and to her and the other 12wbt members. And I was overwhelmed and freaked out and not performing very well at the task at all :). However today I have a different story. A turn around. After alot of feedback on the 12wbt forums and some insight, I got over it and decided I needed to tell Terry. Of course I needed to tell Terry. We virtually live together. He's going to notice if I start eating differently. At least telling him he'll be supportive and will bring it to my attention if I start slipping off track. Well I told him. And he was fine. Curious about what it all involved. Doing the number crunching to work out just how much weight I could lose with the calorie restrictions, hehe. Now that I've told him I can really focus on what I need to do. And I can comfortably plaster my walls with the excu

Sunday, 28th August: Now so far I've found each task to be quite methodical to tackle, a bit time consuming, but not a challenge or anything. This task however, is a different story. This task was really was a challenge for me.   The task: This task is to make a commitment to yourself, and a commitment to others. Voice your goals. Say them out loud to your family, friends and colleagues.   The result (so far): Well this task got on with a shaky task. All day Saturday I got myself up to date with the excuses and goals tasks (tasks 2 & 3). Then I got as far as I could on the gearing up task (task 4) as I could without leaving my home (ie. online shopping!!). On a side note, I love online shopping. God it beats going to a crazy busy shopping centre trying to find products with angry sales assistants ignoring you. Anyway, back to task 5. So it's Sunday morning. I'm feeling great from making excellent progress on all of the previous tasks. I'm almost up to da

Look out. I'm so "smart". Well, A is really meant to be Achievable, and R is meant to be Realistic, but you get the picture. The task: Setting my goals Plan in 12 month, 6 month, 3 month and even 1 month blocks. Your goals should be S.M.A.R.T. Finally tie your goals in with a reward. E.G a holiday or shopping spree. Something to add some spice to your motivation! The result: 1 Month Goals – Oct 2011 Lose 3.7kgs – Weigh 87.3kgs. Strengthen my back by working on my core muscles and stretching my legs in order to meet my 3 month goal. How I Will Get There Diarise each 12WBT activity/process I need to complete each day, as I find out I need to do them. Make these activities and processes my commitment. Each day after work, exercise (burn 500cals), and then perform any other 12WBT commitments. Work and chores can wait until after these commitments. Eat no more than 1200 calories each day – follow Michelle’s diet to a tee. Order groceries online ever

The task: a. To list out every type of excuse you use, that I've used before, and am likely to use again. b. To come up with solutions for every excuse to be prepared for when they may arise again. c. To print them out and stick them up somewhere, so they're always handy when I need to refer to them. These took me forever. There was just so damn many excuses. I worked on this list for about a week in total. Constantly thinking about what I use as an excuse, then how I am going to get myself out of them. I got there in the end though. The result: Brace yourself. It isn't a short read. Internal Excuses Exercise: I’m too tired I’ve got too much on I’m too sore from yesterday’s workout. I’m too fat – it’s too hard to turn around or change. I’m not motivated I’m not fit enough Food: I deserve this junk food because I’ve been training well/I’ve been really good for days. I’ve skipped breakfast so I can afford to eat more for dinner. I’m too hungry to eat

So in my first blog, I mentioned how I've been writing in a diary for about a week so far, documenting my thoughts as I come across a new task set by Michelle. As this blog is going to become where I record my thoughts and journey, I thought I'd transfer all the information from my diary into this blog, so it will be a complete picture of the entire process. Here it is: Wednesday, 17th August The day I joined the 12WBT. Hopefully this is the best $200 I have ever spent. I want this to be the first day of the rest of my life. Getting into it already: I received an email from the program, with Mish asking us to introduce one good exercise habit and one good food into our habit from now until when we start the program. So my choices: Exercise - to do a Pilates or Yoga type class twice a week. This is to help develop my core and stretch my muscles before I start hammering them in whatever Michelle has got planned!! How I've gone to date? Not so well. I've been to