Inspired!

I have been so inspired from writing all of the blogger challenge questions and reading the forums, that last night at 8.30pm I decided to do a workout!

I started out with one of Mish's DVD's, but after about 15 minutes I must admit, I got a little bored... so I put on Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 on the Xbox.  OMG! So awesome!! I did some skipping and a little boxing and I even tried to do the hip hop dancing!! haha!!  But what I loved the most about it was the Tai Chi!  So much fun and so relaxing!!  Definitely something I could use more of!

For Christmas I had gotten the new Polar FT4 from my brother, and almost a month later, I finally got to test it out!  So, last night I burned 511 calories!!!

I also made a decision last night to go to the gym today... in the morning in fact!  Anyone who know's me knows that I am not a morning person... even my partner reckons I'm scary before I have had my morning coffee.  I am so proud to tell you all that I actually got up!!!  I set my alarm for 6am, and while I did get up at 6.20am, I have to tell you that I did seriously consider staying in bed... very seriously thought about it.  I am so glad that I did get up though!!  I got up, made myself a coffee, got dressed and headed out the door to the gym!!  I did a beginner workout from last round with Mish, and I can happily say that I haven't lost as much of my fitness as I thought I would have!!  In fact, I burned another 515 calories!!!

I am so glad that I went this morning!! I was able to come home and not workout this afternoon - completely guilt free!!  I am planning on doing it again tomorrow morning - I just need to start going to bed earlier now....

While I did exercise today, I do need to admit that my eating was off the charts... I haven't had a chance to do the groceries since we got back from holiday, so I will be doing that tomorrow to avoid having so much take away.

Mish has also opened up the pre-season tasks as of today, so I will be watching her video shortly and I will be making a post with my answers.

12WBT Blog Post Ideas

Since writing my last few posts on the Blogger Challenge and How to Start A Blog, I have had a couple of questions regarding blog posts and when e blogger challenge will start.

The Blogger Challenge will start on Monday the 20th of February - this coincides with the middle of the first week of the program (the week usually starts on a Thursday) and I will post up a new Blogger Challenge question each Monday morning for the 12 weeks. These will be scheduled in so that they will appear at 9am each week on my blog.

As for what you guys can write about in the meantime, I did consider putting a couple of extra questions up, but to be honest, I really feel that you guys will have plenty of ideas over the coming 4 weeks. Mish will be posting up her preseason tasks which will give you plenty to write about. I would suggest writing some of them in the forums as she asks, but also putting them onto your blog. This not only gives you things to write about, but also makes it easier for you to refer back to them during the program. Plus, it also makes you accountable by having them there...

Other ideas which you can write about during the program are:

• your exercise - what you did, how you felt it went, how many calories you burned, if you tried something new
• your food - did you try a new recipe, did you eat on plan, were there any challenges?
• milestones - any special achievements?
• fitness tests - what were your results, what were the outcomes, are you happy with how you did?
• your weigh ins - how did you go, are you happy with the results, what do you think you will do the same/what will you change?

I hope this helps to give you some ideas, remember, you can also look at other peoples blogs for ideas. See what they are writing about, comment on their posts, make new friends - you never know when you will get inspired :)

Getting Back into the Groove

While I haven't had a new post in a couple of days, there has actually a lot of work going on in the background.  You see, I have decided to do a Blogger Challenge for the 12WBT for the upcoming round.  (This is an unofficial one - just for the record!)

I got the idea from Courage2Start from the one that she started for round 3, 2011.  I actually got a lot out of participating, and I found that I was really looking forward to the new questions each week.  I loved it so much, I had a chat with Kath and as she wasn't going to do one this round, I thought that I would give it a go!  

So, if there aren't any regular posts coming up, the reason is because I am busy typing up the posts/questions for the blogger challenge... These will all be scheduled so that they will go up each week at the same time.  Plus, if I have them ready to go before they are needed, if anything comes up, they will still be there and will go on the blog no matter what.

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about doing it.  This is my kind of thing... lots of planning and getting involved! haha!

I have been thinking a lot about the program and what i really want to achieve not only for this round, but also for this year.  I have been putting a great deal of thought into it all; mostly in regards to what my goals will be, what I want to focus on, what I think I will struggle with, and how I will overcome these.  I really feel that thinking about all of this now will stand me in great stead for when I need to answer the pre season tasks.

I have been in serious holiday mode since the end of round 3, and I have to say - the scales aren't looking good... This morning decided that it was time to start weighing myself again and trying to cut out the chocolate so that I can jump in, ready to go in just over 4 weeks time.  Now that our guests have left, and life is settling into a normal routine, I am hoping to get back to the gym (in the mornings!!!!!) and shed some of the weight.  I will own up to the fact that I have put almost all of what I lost in round 3 back on.  This morning I weighed in at 95.4kg.

I think that one of my biggest concerns at the moment is that I will be sick like I was last round.  I really found it to be so disruptive to getting into a routine and keeping my motivation up.  At the moment I am fighting off an infection (but not an illness, so that's something) and I am on antibiotics.  Once I finish the course of AB, I will be back at the gym.  I really want to make this round work!  What I need to do though, is to find a middle ground between being committed to the program and stressing out.  I am a bit of an "all or nothing" kinda gal... so this will be an interesting challenge!

Well, that's an update from me!  Back to getting this Blogger Challenge all ready to go!!

The Unintentional Side Effect of the 12WBT

You know, when you think of the 12WBT, most people think of the weightloss, the food, the exercise and the complete overhaul of your life.  However, there is one thing that has really stuck with me since I did Round 3, 2011, and that is gardening. 

It isn't something that I ever thought that I would find a passion for, but here I am, after yet another trip to the garden store.  I have always liked the idea of being able to grow things (with my aunt and sister always gardening when I was younger) and I love the idea of being able to eat food that I have grown myself.

When I first started my garden, I made a couple of posts here and here, and I kept meaning to come in here and update with photos, however there was always something I wanted to add, so I put it off until I could post up the pics.  Now however, I am going to post up a whole bunch of pictures, as I have quite a few I want to share, plus, my garden has grown (and it will grow even more soon - I'm talking size, not plants, although hopefully they will grow too lol)

I have been able to harvest snow peas, beans, spring onions, tomatos, basil, oregano, thyme, coriander (although this plant is now dead! lol), carrots and lettuce.  You can see some of these below (check out my crazy warped carrots!)

The plants grew so well in the big pots, I actually went out an bought a raised garden bed and replanted a lot of the plants in the smaller pots that weren't doing so well... and ta-da! I had a real garden!!  I had done a bit of research using my The Little Vegie Patch Co book, and I read up about having a 'no dig (lazy) garden' where you layer organic material that as it decomposes, gives nutrients to your plants.  I placed all of this into a raised garden bed that I bought at Home Hardware (which B constructed for me).

In fact, I loved the outcome so much - I bought another one!!  I am yet to construct the second garden bed, but it's there, waiting.

My garden has done really well. and I am proud to say that I haven't killed anything - other than some snow pea plants that didn't like to be moved - lesson learned!! lol

I have gotten into gardening so much, that for Christmas I asked my family for a worm farm... that's right... a worm farm!!  People are a little surprised by what I wanted (the other present I asked for was a new Polar HRM lol), but I have to say, I am so excited!!  I love that we can use our food scraps in the farm and reduce our carbon footprint that way, as well as getting some fertiliser for the garden at the same time.  I was only able to set the farm up yesterday, so I got the gardening bug yet again.... hence the trip to Bunnings lol!

I could go to town in Bunnings, there is always something there that I could find a use for...  Yesterday, I bought some more plants (parsely, chives and lavendar), and I also bought some seeds (carrot and lettuce), a couple of pots (for the lavendar and for the strawberries I bought previously) and a little seed tray/greenhouse for growing the seeds.  I didn't realise it at the time, but the lettuce seeds I bought are actually in a tape, so that you can plant them in a straight row... how awesome is that!!  Makes me want to build the second garden bed so that I can test it out!

Anyway, I have posted some pictures previously of what the garden looked like initially, so I thought I would post up a couple of photos that I took yesterday, including of the new plants.

For any newbies out there, growing your own food will be touched on during the pre-season tasks.  Mish I think mostly talks about herbs... I just took it a step (or five!) further.

This is really something that I never thought that I would find an interest in... I mean, before I started I didn't even know what "gone to seed" meant, and I knew nothing about companion planting (interesting stuff really!), now, I still know next to nothing, but I am loving learning about it.   It also plays in well with my planning side, as I get to plan ahead for what I want to grow next, and I also found an app for the ipad (and other devices) called Gardenate, which helps you plan your garden and tells you when to harvest.  You can find their website here.

History

I just wrote this in the 12WBT Forums and thought I would also post it up here...

Well, I didn't think that I would post my story, but here I am.

Let's see, in 2007 at 22 I was told by my doctor that I was pre-diabetic, had high sugar levels, high cholesterol, was overweight and had PCOS. I still remember him telling me this and how I went to my sisters that afternoon and crying. My bestie who had recently past away at the same age as me had diabetes, so it all just hit too close to home.

I changed my diet by cutting out the processed foods and because I was too embarrassed to go outside to exercise because of my weight, I used an exercise bike 6 nights a week for half an hour while watching the biggest loser.

After 6 months I had lost 12 kilos, and needed a change, so I joined healthy inspirations. I didn't have much luck on the scales, but toned my body up to see some amazing measurement losses.

After our local one closed down, I switched from gym to gym, calorie counting along the way and over 4 years losing 23kg.

Then, the weight started creeping back on and I didn't put as much effort in... Then, earlier this year I got with my current partner and managed to put on 10kg in about 3 months! I was partying too much, eating out and not exercising... After all my work over the last 4, almost 5 years, I have still not reached goal weight... In fact, I was only 4kg shy of being back at my start weight...

I had let myself down...

Since mish started doing the 12wbt program I had debated about signing up. After chatting with a friend before last round, I decided to sign up.

My round didn't go according to plan... I was sick 3 times (as in bedridden sick), I moved house, I was in a stressful job, I moved in with my boyfriend (first time I had ever moved in with someone!!!!) and gained an instant family (we have his daughter full time), and finally I also changed jobs! Needless to say, I struggled!

In saying this though, I tried hard to stick to the program as much as I could, and it wasnt until week 11 that I really came unstuck. I didn't have the loss I was expecting, and I have since reverted to my old ways.

What upsets me the most is that I feel like I have let myself down, I feel that I could have done so much more and I am annoyed that I "allowed" myself to "fail".

However, I have learned a lot and I am back! I decided to go to the finale even though I was incredibly sick, and I have to tell you that the atmosphere is electric!! So much so that I actually cried when the workout started because I was so devastated that I was missing out!

I am currently in the process of setting myself some new goals, a couple of which are doing more with the Capital Punishment team here in Canberra, and trying not to stress so much about getting it "right" but just doing it (something I got from the interview with Run Mummy Run last round!), so I want to focus on exercising 6 days a week. Because my new job is so active, I want to become more of a morning person and start exercising in the morning before my day starts.

I have seen how well this program works, and I want it to work for me too - and no one can do it for me, but me!

I have blogged about my previous round, and it has all the highs and lows. I am going to continue writing it this round as I found that it made me more accountable, I would love to have more people reading it and commenting so that I am even MORE accountable lol.

Crippled by Fear

So a while ago I posted about some goals that I wanted to achieve, and these have been on my mind ever since.  I have been seriously considering how I can make these work.

Today I considered calling up the local pool to see about their next technique class, but I have to admit, I started feeling nervous again about actually taking the class!! 

A little history on me and swimming - when I was little, I did a lot of swimming lessons and I remember having a lot of fun!  However, somewhere along the way I became scared of swimming... terrified in fact!  I remember crying in high school to my parents about having to do swimming for PE, and crying in PE class about having to swim and being scared to put my head under the water.  The fear of putting my head under the water is actually something that I have bought with me into my adult life.  I have actually had to condition myself into being able to put my face under the shower without panicking!!

I am quickly realising that this really is a fear, and it is something that needs to be fixed.  It would even be something that would be a great milestone for the next round (ie being able to swim 5 laps - I can probably only do 1 lap.... maybe.... lol)