Listening to my body

So this morning at 5am I made the executive decision to have a rest day. My body is tired my mind is tired and I just needed some rest and I honestly feel really good for it :) this isn't a stop and giving up its that for 8 weeks I have been pushing my body hard and it just needed some tlc. 

I am hoping this rest will enable me to come back hard in these last 4 weeks. 

I simply wasn't able to put the intensity in or mentally fight through the pain. I tried refocusing etc but nothing worked. So perhaps some time out will :) 

I was a little worried I was over training a bit. My body can certainly handle it but if my body tells me to give it a rest then I need to. 

Tomorrow morning I will do my 5km road run then my leg session. My legs will be tired after my run but I have only done legs once this week and I am only able to do cardio before the gym so it is what it is :) I will just give it all I can :)

I'm feeling more motivated and focused today which is great and doesn't normally happen on a rest day. Normally I feel like I'm letting myself down but rest and sleep are just as important as diet and exercise in the weightloss battle. Understanding this and working with it not against it makes a world of difference mentally. 

So official weigh in for the end of week 8 was 79.4kg. :) 

Struggling

I think it's just going to be one of those weeks. I'm still getting out of bed in still doing my workouts and in eating well I'm just finding it hard to put the intensity into my workouts. I did well with my run this morning but when it came to the weights when it got tuff my mind wasn't there to push through the pain. I kept trying but I just didn't have it. So I changed it up a but instead of my normal arm routine I decided to give some of the big heavy weight machines a go. Still worked my arms but it was just something different and it certainly didn't have the intensity of my normal workout. 

This will happen though and I just need to work my way through it. Keep up my training and stick to the diet and eventually the slump will pass. It's highly likely it's woman issue related which is typical lol :) 

So we are down to 4 weeks to go! Time is actually goin really quickly. Tomorrow is weekly weigh in day but this morning I was 79.4kg so it's likely I will weigh in at that. It's a 500g loss for the week which is really good healthy weight loss but it leaves me 3.5-4.4kg to lose to get to my goal. In 4 weeks it's possible but it will be pushing it. All I can do is try and try my hardest :) 

I'm going to do measurements today. I haven't done them since week 6. Hopefully I see some good number drops. 

I've been trying to do more and more research as I don't feel u can ever know enough. I have found this guy in the US that seems to know his stuff. He has competed in a lot of comps but has a phd in nutritional science. I want to see if I can learn some more from him. His name escapes me right now he has a company bio something. Will have to look it up again. 

I only have a cert III in fitness and I need to complete my cert IV but I just feel the stuff taught in these courses is so general and basic. I would like to specialise in women, pregnancy, post partum, focusing on proper metabolic function and optimal body performance. 

Sure just going to the gym is a great start but surely if u could optimise ur time there to achieve great results and the best body u can for the time u available. Most trainers out there only have likited knowledge and although they enjoy fitness they are really passionate about it. 

Granted the gym I go to is a fantastic community gym not really offering any sort of elite type of training as it's not their thing. 

Guess what I am saying is I want to learn from the people who live and breath this stuff. Spend there time understanding the science and physiology behind it all. 

Not just sticking to the age old for women lots reps at low weights so u don't bulk up and become hulk barbie! 

No woman unless taking a testosterone steroid will not naturally become this! :) 

Enough rambling just excited to learn more :) it's been a few years since my brain has had a good decent workout! Love my kids but little kids aren't really mentally stimulating. 

why?

So I have had a few people ask me recently why I am doing this.
I think I have gone over it before but its something I do remind myself of every day so its probably a good time to go through it on here again.

Before I had kids I was always in search of a better looking body. after I had kids this all changed. I remember when I was younger and my parents would take us to the water park or the beach my mum always used to sit far away and read her book.  She was so embarrassed by her weight that she didn't join in life with us. I never want this to happen to me. I have always been an active person anyway but I do not want my weight dictating my life in anyway.  I could just accept being over weight and get out there anyway but I know I wont. I would always have that voice in my head and this would distract from what was happening. Now I am not expecting to look like a 20 year old in a bikini! lets be realistic here I am 32 soon and a mum of 3! :) but I do want to be able to put a swimsuit on and get out there and run around and do everything that my kids are doing. To have the energy and the fitness to keep up. Having 3 boys that never stop I am sure that will be a challenge in itself some times but knowing this keeps me going.

I also want a long healthy life with them.  I had kids a bit later, partly from working on my career and meeting my hubby late and then the 2 years of miscarriages and trouble conceiving but it is what it is and I would like to still have enough years left in me when the grand kids come along.

Finally I want to be a good role model for my kids. I want to lead the healthy happy life I want them to lead.  Being boys I am sure they will be able to get away with eating a lot more crap than I can but that's OK as long as I give them the foundations that's what matters. I can't expect them to eat healthy and be active if I am not.

One of those days with some refocusing required.

Woke up this morning thought I was all pumped to go but got to the gym and fizzled. Had a PT session but my mind and body just didn't have it. After that I did a 9km ride and a fat burner circuit on the elliptical trainer but I didn't have it in me to push. Normally I can focus on the music and push myself really hard. Today I just wanted to stop lie on the floor and go to sleep! 

It's leading up to that time of the month again so it may just be that. Having had 3 kids in 3 years I haven't had them very often so it will probably take my body a while to adjust to the hormonal changes again. Still a week away though and im alread bloated and crampy and sore back. Agh so not fun! Also need some extra willpower as I do just want to EAT! 

The two oldest are at day care so during little Zach's nap I might have a nice hot Epsom salt bath and print out my 7week comparison photos and some more motivational ones. Only 4 1/2 weeks to go. 

I'm still eating well but could be better and training but as yesterday was rest day and today only burnt 700cal I feel like I'm relaxing too much. It's so close to the end now is not the time to back off.

I'm going to spend the arvo refocusing and tomorrow I'm going to hit the gym hard! :) strict diet until the finish line. 

I can do this and I will because I want it! 

Rest day!

Finally after 9 days straight due to having last Thursday off instead of the Sunday the rest is a welcome relief to my body. 

I will do some stretching today which I'm looking forward to but that's it. My hip flexors are very tight. 

I went for my 5.5km road run yesterday. I felt really strong running yes actually running not my jog and did the first half super quick but I stopped to walk once to tie my jacket around my waist and after that my legs just felt super heavy and sore. I kept jogging on the way home woul jog as far as I could push then I walked again till some lactic acid was gone and then back to jogging again. 

I did the 5.5km including a 7min walk warm up in 50mins so I was happy with that. After that I went to the gym for an arm workout :) I superset most of it but I could certainly feel the fatigue in my body. 

So yesterday I did something I knew I shouldn't have. For 2 reasons. Firstly the bad fat calories and 2nd because I felt like utter crap afterwards. So my mums owns a fish and chip shop and B and I are in the process of buying it of her. Now B loves his cooking so we are changing and he has already changed the a lot of the food from frozen stuff to freshly made stuff. It is still battered and crumbed and deep fried but it's a lot fresher and way better tasting. Having 3 kids I won't be able to do much physical work in the shop but I am going to be doing a lot of the food preparations here at home. 

Anyway so I took the boys in there for lunch yesterday and we had some fish and potato scollops and chips. I didn't eat overalls but within the hour of eating it I felt tired and lethargic and got the worst headache. By late afternoon I had a tummy ache :( no wonder over weight unhealthy people feel horrible, tired, sick and lethargic all the time :( 

I would love to add a healthy range but it's not what people want when they get take away fish and chips. They already do sandwiches, wraps and salads but I might just see if there are some other options perhaps? For those mums or dads out there who want to get takeaway on a Friday night the family wants fatty stuff but one might not. I would usually order grilled fish and salad but surely I can come up with something else. 

So I'm still a little frustrated by what my brain sees as lack of progress. I know I have come so far in such a short space of time and I am looking forward to plugging away at achieving my goal over the next 5 months. I would like to be 65kg by Chrissy! 

Now in saying this of course this will be my focus plus this new shop and also trying to get our family into a routine for all of this but B and I have discussed it and we have decided to start trying for our final member of our family early next year. Probably around march when Zach turns one. I would like to make sure all my hard work to lose my weight and get fit doesn't go down the tube so I would also like to spend some time researching over the next few months safe ways to exercise etc. I would like to continue with my daily gym work outs etc and I know this is healthy to do I just want to make sure I am doing the right things :) 

So lots and lots going to be happening in the next 12moths! Every exciting! 

Week 7 comparison

So I'm not actually due to take photos until next week but I just wanted a boost and needed to see how far I have come. 

This is my week 7 comparison pics. 

Definitely big changes but still a long way to go. I would really love to see more tone but that will take a lot more time. Still a very high body fat percent. 

79.7kg. 7.1kg loss in 7 weeks. 5 weeks to go! 

Hello to the 70's!

Finally I weighed in at 79.9kg this morning. It's been such a long time since I have seen this number and I know technically it's still 80 but it's not it 79.9kg! That's a 500g loss already this week and still 2 more days till my official weigh in on Friday. 

Less than 5kg to my goal for this challenge. 

I've made some chances to my diet I will run through them when I get a chance :) 

Finally a good leg session

This morning I woke up and my legs and butt are sore! Yay. Not a lot but enough to know I pushed them yesterday. No matter what I was doing they just weren't hurting! It was frustrating! 

As I only had an hour I did 1 set of tri-set and then went into super sets. So I did a heavy weight followed by a non weighted exercise working the same muscle. So 20kg on the calf raise followed by jump ups on toes. Bar squat followed by squats. Should have done jump squats there but I am trying to perfect my squat technique. 9kg dumbbell walking lung with plyometic lunges. 

I was going to go for a run this morning but as my legs were sore i gave it a miss. Running at 6am in the freezing cold isn't very inviting as it is lol. 

So when Blake goes down for a nap I'm going to do a HIIT session. 

30secs on 15sec rest btwn exercises then a 1m30s rest between sets

Mountain climbers

Burpees

Jump squats

Plyometic lunges

V-sit ups

Spider mans

Push ups 

Then I'm going to do a good stretching session. 

So I do think finally the results are starting to come :) only 1 week since my last photos and again I can see a difference. Long time since I fitted into the yellow bikini. 

Still a long way to go to get the muscle definition that I want but I am getting there with the weightloss a least. I have lots of people always commenting in how good I'm looking :) 

Getting SO close

Weighed in at 80.5kg this morning!!! In getting so close to those 70's! 500g.

This puts me into a better frame if mind thinking I can get to 75 by completion. I have 5 weeks to go 5.4kg isn't that unrealistic. Even 4.5kg would take me down to 75.9! It's still 75! :) It's going to require even more focus and determination but I want it so I'm going to work my butt off to try and achieve it. 

I did a good session at the gym this morning. I did a slow steady session as I had been sick. I still managed to run 3km in 20mins and did all my arm weights but I only super set not tri set them followed by my low intensity cardio on the elliptical trainer. I burnt 950cal in 1hr40 so not bad. 

I only have 1 hour to smash it out tomorrow morning as it's Saturday and the gym doesn't open until 7 and B has to leave for work at about 8:15. I'm going to do a tri-set leg session but I just need to sort it out some more. The last one I did wasn't intense enough. Could have been because I was getting sick but still. I really want to do some glut work. I do heaps of thigh stuff but nothing much that really targets gluts. I know squats and lunges should but I just don't feel it as much there. Will try to do some research once the boys go down to bed tonight. 

Sick

Today is one of those make or break things. Yesterday afternoon I came down with some kind of stomach vomiting bug. I we throwing up until 2am after which I had to give Zach a bottle at 2:30 then Tyler woke up then Blake and Blake again. Eventually at 5:30 I got to bed fell asleep. Saving grace was the kids slept until 7:30. 

I'm still feeling queezy today and shocking headache probably from not eating much but all round just feel tired and crap. 

I'm sure I will be fine tomorrow if I manage a reasonably decent sleep tonight but the way I feel today I wonder how I ever felt good exercising or how I ever will again. 

I'm a shocking sick person I find it such an inconvenience. Give me healthy energetic at the gym kind of day any day! 

Being tired is also making my fatigued body harder to deal with. 

Anyway not much of a post mainly a whinge but it's going to test my resolve getting up early tomorrow and going to the gym. It's moments like this it would be easier to just give up. Have fatty takeout for dinner a few glasses of wine and sleep in tomorrow but I know in the long term I will feel so much better getting up and going to the gym! 

Slipped just slightly

So since my 1/2 way point weigh in I have slipped a little. Mainly in diet. Nothing major but it's the little things that could hurt come final weigh in. 

So on Sunday I had a friend come over. I made some sugar free, dairy free, gluten free things made with quinoa, coconut, rice malt syrup and egg whites. I ate far too many of them but that's all I ate between breakfast and dinner. We just sat and chatted and I picked. I stuck to breakfast and dinner so not too bad.

Then yesterday and today I had some ham and cheese on my lunch wrap and a couple of mini milky ways. It's not break the bank kind of stuff and no point beating myself up what's done is done.

Exercise has been great. I have started doing tri-sets for my weights. It's hard work and it burns lots more calories and it's supposed to burn all day. 

What's involved is u do 3 exercises targeting the same area. Eg leg extension, jump squats and hamstring curls. U do each exercise 12 times and u repeat the set 6 times no rest. The burn is bad by the end and some times I need to drop the weight to finish or for things like jump squats I just go to failure. U rest between tri-sets. 

After I do this I do 20mins low intensity cardio and in a session I burn around 900cal. 

I am still greatly struggling by what I am perceiving is my lack of progress. I hit a huge mile stone the other day I dragged out my skinny clothes bag and I was shocked that 99% of it fit. Ok i still need a couple more cm to be 100% comfortable wearing it in public but they were size 12 and they fit. I'm 10kg heavier than when I wore them last so I'm thinking I must have so much more muscle this time around. This being the case I am hating that 81kg on the scales, I'm hating the belly fat that I'm just not used to. Before I had kids I didn't have this my belly was the last place I put on fat. 

It's a mental hurdle I need to over come. It's all part of the process of me learning to love my new post baby body. I am losing weight and that is certainly helping but the reality is your body is different after having kids. Ur hips are different, ur boobs, ur belly. In time some of this may go back to what it was. I am only 17weeks post partum and my hormones are still returning to normal. It will take time for my body to respond to normal hormones again. 

I do need to pull my head in with my diet. Stay strong and stick to it. Diet is 80% of weight loss and for me to be putting so much effort into my exercise I need to bring it home with diet. 

This is a 12week challenge and once I reach my target weigh of 65kg which of course won't be during this challenge but once I do reach it I can return to a more balance maintenance type diet and lifestyle. I can't do the slow weightloss thing. I am a strong willed all in kind of person. Go hard or go home. It's the way I do everything in my life :) it's just me. I get bored and move on other wise. 

This is some pics of me in my skinny clothes 

1/2 way

So By my dates I'm 1/2 way through my challenge today. The magazine took a week to process so for them it's next week but I have to say im a bit disappointed which is silly.

My measurements are great 

 5.7kg loss. 

Arms -3.5cm off each

Chest -6cm

Waist -10cm

Gluts -7cm

Thighs -4cm off each

Calf -2.5cm off each 

Hips -9cm

Perhaps it's that I weighed in at 81.1kg? Getting back into the 70's would have been nice :( 

These are my photos :( top ones are the start obviously. 

They aren't pretty :( still a long way to go but it is what it is and I can only improve from here so posting these photos is for a reminder of why I am doing this because yes it is embarrassing posting a photo of what I look like but to never feel this embarrassment again will keep me going! 

I've had to have a rest day today as I have a niggle in my lower back. It was sore yesterday after my work out and I put a heat pack and anti inflam on it and it feels ok today but still tender. I was up and could have gone to the gym this morning but I was worried with it being tender if I pushed it I could really do an injury. I hadn't had a rest day in over a week so I was due for one anyway. 

In 6 weeks i did pick at a few chocolates here and there nothing major and I had 2 bad eating days but I still made sure I came in under my calories. I started out lighter with my exercise to ensure I didn't injure myself. 3 years of not much exercise I've had to build myself into it. I now run 3km in 20mins 5-6days a week i do weights 6 days a week and I also do 20mins low intensity exercise after my weights every day. I have a PT sessions on Monday. 

I did some reading yesterday and I am learning a lot. The guy knows his stuff. Now I have decided I definitely don.'to want to figure compete. They get so low in body fat their period stops and every thing. No thanks. For me this is a change in lifestyle. I want to really tone up and really drop body fat but not to that extent.  I am following their off season diet and over the next 6 weeks will increase my workout intensity even more. 

So my diet that I had worked out myself was what he recommended which I was really happy about. :) 

With the exercise I need to up the intensity by keeping my heart rate up and in the uncomfortable zone for longer. 

To do this it's similar to what I did in my PT session on Monday. 

So during a weight session if I do squats i follow it up by jump squats, lunges followed by plyometic lung jumps. 

For other exercises do ones that incorporate the whole body moving. So shoulder work incorporate squats into it etc. it's going to be hard work but it's what I need to do. 

I want to be at least 75kg at the end of this challenge. I know I will be disappointed if I'm not. 

Another challenging day

I  slowly learning my triggers for eating and a really big one is tiredness. Last night was a shocker. So B and I haven't been the closest lately 3 kids under 3 u get so busy u just pass each other. Because I am out the door early I am usually in bed by 9 and do 1-2 wake ups over night with Zach and out the door to the gym 5:30ish.

Well last night Ben had a movie for us to watch so I thought I would stay up and watch it with him and it was nice to snuggle and watch a movie together. It's been a long time. Anyway that finished at 10:30 and just as we were heading to bed Zach woke for a feed. He never wakes that early. Agh so I fed him put him down went to bed. Blake woke crying at 11:30, and 12:30, Zach woke for another bottle at 1:30 and then Tyler woke crying at 2:30. Finally after this I got to sleep only to be woke at 5:45 by Zach for another bottle. After this bottle I put him down and went to the gym eyes bulging out of my head! 

So because of this tiredness im searching for energy. I had my smoothy for breakfast but since then I have had 3 Freddo frogs and for lunch I had 2 rye wraps with avocado, ham, processed cheese slice and tomato. I know it's not that bad and normally it would be ok but I'm on this challenge I'm almost 1/2 way though and I know I will be disappointed it I don't get to my goal. 

But I've pulled my head in. I entered it into myfitnesspal so it just need to make sure I don't tip over my calories for the day. 

As for my day at the gym well I am finding my legs aren't sore after a workout. So I thought perhaps it's from bad form as in not getting deep enough in the squats and using the full range of muscle motion. So today I dropped my weights to start and am going to work on techniques. Feels like I've done nothing though so we will see. It was a bit of a rushed session though as I was running so late. 

Hopefully the boys have a better night so I can get some good sleep and get to the gym early. 

Milestone

Well those scales finally shifted! 81.6kg! The 70's are so close I can taste them! I haven't been in the 70's since my 2nd miscarriage in 2009. 

But the milestone is I am now over half way. I have lost 17.1kg since the day Zach was born on the 17th March and I have 16.6kg to go to get to my goal of 65kg! 

Yay! :) next Friday marks the midway point of this challange and I would really like to be in the 70's. Even 79.9kg would do :) 

I had another pt session this morning. Was really good we did weights followed by a plyometic set. So for example I did squats using the smith machine heaviest weight reaching muscle fatigue in 12 squats and then straight into jump squats. Omfg talk about hard work! Lol it's great though I love being pushed. My trainer loves anything jumping- jump squats, jump lunges, frog jumps. I suck at jumping. Lol hopefully over time I improve! Haha 

I have to up my ab routine. I'm not doing much and what I am doing is gettig easy so I am going to look into that tomorrow. Find some good exercises. 

And I have to add this one simply because I found it absolutely hilarious! 

Motivation

I found this last night and I love it! This is going on my fridge! 

Why u should take photos.

So I'm still sick! Agh and the scales have stalled on 82kg agh! I know u go through ups and downs of weight loss etc but it doesn't help. I know u shouldn't watch the scales but when I have 17-20kg still to lose I expect to see those numbers drop. Sure when I get to the last 5-10kg it will be different but until then damit. 

Anyway it's been one month since I took some photos of me in my dream clothes. The ones I want to look good in again.

The dress u can't see much difference but the jeans. Well I was so NOT even expecting to get them over my butt yet! 

Still a long way to go but it just shows I'm clearly losing the cm. losing fat and gaining muscle! I can start to see the muscle definition coming through the plentiful layers of fat I still have but see that hint of muscle is nice. 

This morning at the gym it was super quiet and I was the only one in the weights room. So I thought I would try those few weights I really want to so but was too embarrassed if anyone was around incase I did something stupid. 

Anyway I can now dead lift and also free bar squat and lung! Yay. No more smith machine. While the smith machine is great this forces me to 100% use all the right muscles especially core as I need to hold the bar steady as flat where as the smith machine will do that for u. 

So after my wavering motivation thinking nothing was happening after seeing those photos I can see something definitely is.

So glad I took them now makes getting up in the freezing cold dark worth it! 

Sumer bodies are made in winter! 

Week 5

So this week has been both really good and really bad.

So the week started off great I had my first PT session. Tabatta HIIT session. It's Thursday and I'm still sore! Which is awesome. After I still managed a 2.77km jog In 20mins. Tuesday and Wednesday was mainly cardio as i was sore mixed with some weights. Tuesday I finally cracked 3km in 20mins! Yay! 

Anyway the cold I have had for what 2 weeks now just keep amping up. It was bad yesterday but last night I could not stop coughing. Heavy chesty flem both on chest and in nose. Dark thuck green yellow stuff. So gross. :( I made the decision over night i needed a  rest day to let my body fight this cold a little. Then when I got up this morning my first lot of monthlys arrived. First proper one after the birth of zach. It's amazing how they just make u EAT! 

This morning was bad. I had a few bites of the boys iced finger buns :( then I had a ham, cheese and avocado rice mountain bread wrap, and to top it off I had 2 mini milky ways! Agh! All before lunch. 

I weighed in at 82kg 2 days ago so I could have dropped down to 81.5kg at tomorrow's weigh in but now I will be lucky if I make the 82. 

After that slip up I decided to refresh my motivation and go through online weight loss transformation pics and blogs. Was a good idea as I feel motivated again. Only 1/2 a day blown. 

Hopefully tomorrow I will feel better and can smash it at the gym. Pull my head in and stick strong to my diet! Might be time to print out some of my motivational pics I have on my iPhone and iPad. Stick them on the fridge. Help bring home the back half of this challenge! 

One more week until half way. I can do this! 

Two motivational pics for the day