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!!

 

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 3 Surprise Task

This weeks surprise task was to come up with a quick, easy and low calorie snack to give others a few ideas for snacks.  This is the one that I just submitted:

Choc Banana Yoghurt Ice Blocks
Serves 6 - 121 calories per serve

Ingredients
400g low fat natural yoghurt
2 medium banana
2 tablespoon cocoa

Method
Add yoghurt, banana and cocoa into a blender. Blend until smooth

Pour mixture into ice block moulds and freeze until firm.


I am now in the draw for 1 of 30 George Foreman grills.

Weigh In!!

Today is weigh in day.  As you may have read from my previous posts, I have been struggling with the program, mostly because I have been sick and wanting comfort foods.  I haven't been able to exercise because of being sick, but I am very happy to tell you all that this week I have lost 2.2kg!!!

I was so surprised this morning to see 93.9 on the scales that I actually got off, and tried again!  It's great to see that even just sticking to the food has done that much work!!!

I have decided tonight I am going to jump back on the xbox and do a cardio workout by doing the dance central game.  I did this last week, but was only able to do half an hour before I felt like I was going to pass out.  I want to give it another go now that I am feeling a little better.  As a bonus, B won't be home to watch me being so unco! lol  Because it has been a week since I exercised, I seem to have lost my exercise mojo and now CBF doing it... but I know I just need to do something to get me started. I am also considering looking into the Zumba game for the xbox.  I have it for the Wii, but I much prefer the kinect.

We are heading out to the movies tonight, so I will have a think about what we will do food wise while we are there.  Popcorn will be out, but I might have a diet coke or something.  I love popcorn and chocolate at the movies, so this will be a bit of a challenge.

Also, as it is now week 2, we had another weekly challenge, which was a nutrition quiz.  I only got 8/10. I got a question wrong about alcohol (I don't drink any of the alcohol mentioned so that didn't help) and I also got the popcorn vs choc top question wrong.  I haven't done my 20 punishment push ups yet, I should do them tonight! lol

Last night we tried the Spaghetti Bolognaise with Lentils. I quite liked it, although I have a feeling it would taste even better if the lentils weren't out of a can lol.  I am having the left overs for lunch today.  This week I rewrote the menu plan as there was actually a fair bit on there that really just didn't appeal to me (or to B) and as B is missing his meat, we are trying a few new meals, such as nachos, meatballs and Mexican meat pie.

That's all from me for now.  Really should do some work! lol

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!