Step 1: Health

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