Are You Serious!?!

Before we headed over to the in-laws for dinner, I thought I would quickly do my 1km time trial for my first fitness test.  I did all of the other parts of the test last night and this was the only one I had left to do.

Unlike last round's fitness tests, I now have a 'legitimate' track - one that is already marked out at 500m - meaning no more calculations with google maps! All of my runs from now on will be the same length.

Now, you are probably confused by the title of this post, but I need to just say again:

Are You Serious!?!

I can't believe I am about to tell you all this, but I ran (mostly) 1km in 7 minutes 26 seconds!!!!  That means that I am in the intermediate category!!!

I am so surprised as I thought that I would have lost all of my fitness during my "mopey off season"!

The results of the other portions of my test are as follows:

• Push ups: 35 on knees
• Sit and reach: +3cm
• Ab test: 0 (totally as expected)
• Wall sit: 17 seconds

These are all worse than my last fitness test results, however other than the ab test, they are all better than my first fitness test last round - which I count as a positive!!

So, I'm off now to check out the intermediate exercise section on the 12wbt site!!

 

Crazy, Crazy Week!

Where has all of my time gone??  I seem to be packing as much as I possibly can into my days lately, and I am already feeling the strain!  I need to get a few things off my to-do list to be able to get things under control, at this point I feel like I have 50 things trying to get my attention, and I have to say there is only so much that I can do.

In saying all of that, I have actually made it to the gym 6 days last week, and sadly, I know I won't do it this week.  To help remove some of the strain in my life at the moment, I have decided to focus on getting my flat ready to rent.  This means moving the last of my stuff out (at this stage I am not even bothering with cleaning out as I go unless it is something really obvious) and cleaning.  Then I need to organise insurances, fire alarm testing and signing off the paperwork for the property manager.  I would really like to get all of this done this week.  Aside from just trying to get something off my to do list, it is also a bit of a necessity as I quit my job!!! 

I am going from full time work/part time study to part time work/full time study.  I can't even begin to explain how excited I am about this!!  The last year or more I have been feeling so unhappy with my life, or how my time was spent to be more exact.  I felt like I was losing myself and just couldn't seem to settle.  I felt as though I was constantly on the go and couldn't fit everything in.  Lucky for me I have a very supportive boyfriend who wants to see me succeed and to be happy.

Now, a little more on my actual 12WBT journey!

Let's see... this last week I have had my weekly weigh in, my Week 8 fitness test and my Week 8 milestone!

So, my weigh in was as follows

Week 8
Wednesday 2 November

		Change	Total Loss
Weight:	91.6kg	-1.1kg	-4.9kg
Arms: (ea)	28.5cm	-1cm	-1cm
Bust:	108.5cm	-2cm	-5.5cm
Waist:	118cm	-1cm	-5.5cm
Hips:	118.5cm	-1.5cm	-6cm
R Thigh:	54cm	-2cm	-4.5cm
L Thigh:	54cm	-2cm	-4.5cm
Totals:		-10.5cm	28cm

I didn't actually realise until now that I have only lost 1.1kg in 4 weeks.  To say I am disappointed in myself is an understatement.  It seems quite dismal.  I will confess and tell you all that I haven't been sticking to the program 100%.  We aren't very organised when it comes to grocery shopping or planning meals or getting it all sorted.  We were in the beginning, but I think since we stopped following Mish's plan exactly and since the fridge died.  All excuses, I know, but right now my mind isn't into the whole planning side of this... I just need to get a few things out of the way first.

I also did my Week 8 Fitness Test and can I just say that I am gobsmacked at how much I have improved!!!  I actually did the tests a bit all over the place by doing them on different days, but I don't think it matters much.

My 1km time trial was simply amazing!  We did have to change the location as the oval we were using no longer had any lines marked, but we managed to find an even better one!  The best thing is - I did the 1km in 4 minutes 34 seconds!!!  Thats 2 mins 17secs off my time 4 weeks ago and 2 minutes 42 seconds faster since I started the 12WBT.  I even ran almost the entire time!  I didn't run for about 1/4 of a lap (so about 100m).

I also smashed my wall sit!!  Last time I lasted 26 seconds, this time I made it to  1 minute 5 seconds!!!

I managed to do 42 push ups compared to 4 weeks ago where I did 31 pushups.

My sit & reach was also smashed where I was able to reach 5cm more. 

And finally, I have made it to a Level 1  in the sit up test!!!!!  It was so excited!! I promise - there was cheering and squealing in the house that night!!

Now, my Week 8 Milestone was to go paddle boating!! and OMG!!  It is hard!!  I have had bad knees in the past and had a lower back injury as well, so maybe I didn't think this one through that well... We only did half an hour, and I am so glad that we only did that!! It wasn't long before my knees were so sore!!  I think it was

more joint sore than muscle sore - which isn't good.  However, in saying that, it was a great day out on the lake!  Even managed to take a couple of photos! Sorry mine is a little dark and you can't really see my face lol  I was worried about getting sunburned! lol The photo of my partner turned out much better!

Week 5

Today is the start of week 5!  I am trying to get myself motivated again, which is where I think the mini-milestone bush walk would have helped, however due to weather, we didn't get to go.  I have 'rescheduled' it for this coming Saturday, so I am hoping that the weather will be ok to us this time.  I am a little disappointed that we couldn't go, but I have also managed to get sick again, so to be fair, I probably wouldn't have been able to do much anyway or been able to get much out of it as I was so tired all of yesterday.

However, on Friday and Saturday nights I did complete my next fitness test to see how much I have improved.  Overall I am really happy with what I have managed to accomplish, considering I have struggled with the exercise portion and being sick so much.

First off, I did the 1km run and I managed to do it in 6 minutes and 51 seconds, 30 seconds better than 4 weeks ago. I have to admit, that I was a little disapointed, but considering that I hadn't really been running for long (probably 2-3 weeks) that's pretty good.  And when you are running, 30 seconds is a long time!  Also, I think that getting sick had an impact on this, and I think I walked a bit more than I did the first time.

Last time around I was able to do 23 push ups on my knees, on Saturday night, I smashed out 31 push ups!!!  That was really exciting!!!

I am also really happy with my wall sit, as I doubled my last result and I was able to sit there for 26 seconds!!!! I didn't think I would be able to do much more than my previous results of 13 seconds, so I am happy with that!

As expected, my abs test wasn't that great, and I am still at level 0 however, in saying that, I could tell that I had improved and I was able to get a little more movement, I just need to start doing more ab exercises.

The flexibility test was a pretty big break through! I was able to touch my toes!!  Which means that my result was 0!!  That is a 4cm improvement!!!

Overall, I have had some great results!! and I love that we are tracking them so that I can see them.  I wonder what my week 8 results will be like!!  The weekly surprise was updating my stats page with the above results as well as my measurements.

Week 1 Surprise: Fitness Test

Week 1 starts tomorrow, and we had a fitness test that we had to do.  I did mine today and you won't believe it - I am in the intermediate category!!  Who would have thought?! I am so happy with my results - at least at this stage of the game! I thought I might have been in the beginner category.

In the 1km run, we went to the local oval, and I did it in 7 minutes 21 seconds, which is in the intermediate category.  I didnt struggle with this as much as I thought.  It was hard but it really wasn't as bad as I was dreading. I wasn't able to run the whole way, but I jogged for most of it, and only walked twice and it wasn't for long overall.

For the push up test, in 1 minute I did 23 push ups and they hurt!!!  By the end of it, I really struggled to get those last few out.  Compared with the push up test I did at the gym a few weeks ago, I did all of these at stage 2 (on my knees, but with my knees further back).  These results were also in the intermediate category, so I am happy with that.

The wall sit REALLY hurt!!  Sadly, I was only able to manage 13 seconds before my knees started to really hurt as well as my thighs.  This is something that I am hoping to improve on as the beginner category is 59 seconds or less... and I would say I failed lol!  I would like to  at least be able to be closer to the 59 second mark.

As I expected, I completely failed the abs test... I couldn't even get my wrists to knees!!! So, this is my other beginner category. But as I said, I was expecting this, and this is why it is one of my goals to build up my core muscles.  I am curious if this is one of the reasons why I couldn't lose much weight off my tummy area when I was closer to my goal weight.  I know that it isn't possible to spot reduce, but I had no 'structure' there to help with it at all.

The last test had to do with flexibility, with this I also got an intermediate level.  My measurement for this was -4cm, meaning my fingertips were 4cm from my toes when I was trying to reach for them.  People who can reach past their toes would be in the positive.  I am hoping that one day I will be flexible enough to do this.

Overall, I did much better than I was expecting, and I am quite happy with the results.  I really do want to work on my core muscles, I need to learn to stop ignoring them.  We have Your Shape Fitness Eveloved for the Xbox as well as the EA Sports Active 2.  I am hoping that I will be able to put together a core workout together on these to help me out.

One other thing I loved about doing this fitness test was how involved my partner was in it all.  It was great to see him take an interest in it and wanting to see how he faired with the tests as well.  He even took the pics of me running lol! Hope u like them haha!

Task 8: Measure Up

Well, here we go! It's the first official weigh in of the 12WBT!  Sadly, the weight has crept up over the preseason, but I don't want to focus on this, I want to focus on how much my body is going to transform over the next 12 weeks from all of the hard work I will be putting into it from exercise and eating right!

I have taken my before photo (very confronting and all kinds of rolls that I didn't know that I had)  I think it will be awesome to see how much my body can (and will!) change over the next 12 weeks.  I have also done up my measurements (below) so I can track how much this changes too.

Week 1
Thursday 8 September

		Change	Total Loss
Weight:	96.5kg	n/a	n/a
Arms:	29.5cm	n/a	n/a
Bust:	114cm	n/a	n/a
Waist:	123.5cm	n/a	n/a
Hips:	124.5cm	n/a	n/a
R Thigh:	58.5cm	n/a	n/a
L Thigh:	58.5cm	n/a	n/a

We got our shopping list and meal plans for the upcoming week.  Brian and I sat down tonight and placed our grocery order.  It was really reasonably priced overall.  We had a few extra things on the list, but it came to about $175, which I think is pretty good considering it's the initial shop and there would be a few things that we didn't have in the cupboard.  The recipes looked really good! There wasn't really anything that I turned my nose up at, although there were a couple of interesting dishes.  I think because I have gone into it open minded, I am more willing and likely to try new things.  I have noticed a few people on the forums seem to be turning their noses up at the food before they had seen it.  I used to be a really fussy eater, and I know how hard it was for me then when I didn't eat what was on offer, however I think that the only way I got over that was to retrain my taste buds and to keep trying new things. I really hope that they can get as much out of the program as possible.

There is also a fitness test that needs to be done.  I had planned on doing it at the gym, but Mish wants us to do it unaided (ie that we are running on our own, not having a machine set at a certain speed to aid us).  There are also some push ups, sit ups (if you remember from my PT session, I struggled with both!) theses weird sitting reach things, wall sits... i think thats it... as well as the 1km run (omg!!)  I am so nervous about the run!  1km is quite a lot!  We worked out that if I ran around the local football field (about a 5 min walk away from our house) I would need to run around it one and a half times... thats a lot!!  I don't think I will be able to run the whole thing, but as Mish said, I just need to do it, it doesn't matter if I run, walk or crawl it, I just need to finish it.

Tomorrow night, the grocery shop will arrive so I will try to remember to take some pics of our healthy foods and I would also like to do the fitness test so that it is done and out of the way.