10k, 58min, 780cal

So it's weigh in day today. I was feeling pretty good about today's weigh in - I hadn't eaten perfectly, but I'd eaten MUCH better than the week before at the conference, and the week prior to that when I couldn't stop snacking. So I was definitely hoping for a loss rather than a gain like the past 2 weeks!
So I stepped on the scales, and found out I'd lost 1.3kg! Hooray! This is quite a lot given I'm not super heavy (or tall) to begin with. Those couple of 1000cal exercise sessions paid off! Finally, I've started to head back in the right direction, after a few crappy weeks.
So, my stats were:
-24.9% body fat (down 0.4%)
-55.9% water (up 0.3%)
-35.9% muscle (up 0.2%)
-23.1 BMI
-2322 cal needed per day (up 9?)

Well, the weekly round up as usual:

Sat
Ended up with ~1162 cal in and 1006cal out. Stoked with that.

Sun
Opted for one of Mish's salad options for lunch: baby spinach, pear, walnut & chickpea. Rather delicious and quite filling! Tea was Mish's butter chicken and this was REALLY yummy. I made double so I could store 3 lots in the freezer (which is getting rather full!). Ended up eating some more of my housemate's chocolate pudding so ended the day with 650cal out and 1395 in.




Mon
Decided to see if I could do an SSS much faster if I did pure cardio. Theory proved correct when I managed 1042cal in 90min. YAY! Felt so good afterwards, though my knee was still bothering me a bit. Splitting up my running between the cross-trainer and treadmill is really helping though. Had Mish's not so naughty nachos for tea, which I didn't enjoy as much as the bean nachos, and overdid the snacks a bit, so 1412cal in. Not too fussed given my epic morning workout.

Tue
Shorter gym session today as I had a long day at uni. 1151cal in, 511cal out. Had Mish's lamb with spiced rice for tea and this was quick & easy, and really yummy!

Today
Went hard at the gym today, and ran 4.5k on the cross-trainer in 25min and 5.5k on the treadmill in 33min, burning a total of 780cal! The sweat was literally flying off me. Again felt great afterwards; those endorphins are really flowing! Avoided the free bbq at lunch and had leftovers from last night instead, but couldn't help but support the global health bake sale - had a piece of choc cake with peanut butter icing (plus a taste of a marshmallow frosting red velvet cupcake and a cream cheese icing carrot cake!!!) so my cals will probably be blown out of the water. I'm going to be pretty good for the rest of the day, though I couldn't help but buy a block of Cadbury mousse raspberry coulis chocolate on sale for 99c! At 2 squares or 125cal I'm happy to incorporate that into my cal allowance. I'm making Mish's thai chicken burgers for tea which I think should be rather yum!

It's the weekend!

Yay for the weekend! :) I'm staying in Gippsland this weekend which means I have heaps of extra time to get stuff done, including my Super Saturday Session! Anyway, to recap:

Wed
Beef stroganoff was pretty good. I wayyy overcooked the beef though so I burnt a few extra calories trying to chew my way through it, haha! Total cal in 996, total cal out 750.

Thu
Had Mish's breakfast crumble with yoghurt again. Cos it's not very filling and so high in sugar I probably won't have it again. Dinner I tried Mish's cannellini bean stew with crispy polenta. Not bad, but needed some added salt for flavour. Only managed 300cal of exercise with today's workout plan, and ate 1469cal. Whoops!

Fri
Burnt 475cal on the treadmill today. Knee is still playing up which is making anything involving knee bending a bit painful. I'm still trying to push on through it while I wait for my new runners to arrive! Had Mish's bean nachos with chilli guacamole for dinner and they were fantastic! Yum yum! Afterwards had some chocolate pudding that my housemate made. Total cals in ~1762 including the 580cal of the chocolate pudding!!! Oh yes, and my big positive for today was that a girl at uni said 'How much weight have you lost? You look so skinny!' Hooray! Given I've done nothing but put weight back ON the last 2 weeks, this was a welcome comment.

Today
Had Mish's banana bruschetta for breakfast (not bad), then headed to the farmer's market this morning, it's only on once a month and often doesn't coincide with when I'm in Traralgon so I was pleased to be able to go. I bought 2 packets of gourmet sausages (chicken, cheese & chive, and turkey, cranberry, basil), 3kg of delicious oranges, a bunch of coriander, and some flowers to brighten up my room. A really pleasant way to pass the morning. After going to Woolies to do the rest of my shopping, I decided it was time to do my SSS. I have never burnt 1000cal in one go before, and decided today was the day. I started with Mish's Ignite and Burn 700 SSS (finishing it off with a 5k run), then I did Friday's core & stretch workout, then I had to run another ~1.5-2km, then stretched, then jumped around for a bit, and FINALLY, 2 hr 35min later, I had burnt 1006cal! Geez it took forever though and I was completely beat, I found myself shutting my eyes at times as I was doing some of the stretches. With full-time study and part-time work I do not have time to be doing that every weekend!!! So this might be my once off. Had Mish's steak sandwich for lunch which was REALLY yummy. Off out for dinner tonight but I've got 440cal remaining for the day to hit 1200, and after my SSS I'm not going to feel too guilty about a bit of a (controlled) binge! :)

Wednesday Weigh-In

Well here I am, sitting here a little morose, but it's all my own fault as I showed a decided lack of willpower while I was at the Canberra conference. I won't bore you with all the details but let's just say there was hash browns, chocolate brownie, portuguese egg tarts, fresh bread and butter, black forest cake, chocolate espresso cake, scones with jam and cream, pavlova and cheesecake involved, just to list a few things! Deary me. Considering I have only managed to gain 500g I probably escaped quite well out of it. Sadly that makes 800g gained in two weeks of 12wbt, after going so well in preseason and losing 3kg. *sigh*. I now weigh exactly the same as I did 3 weeks ago.
Anyway, I'll post my ins & outs so I can least try and keep myself accountable:
Thursday:
-360cal out at the gym in about 40min
-at least 1700cal in
Friday:
-694cal out doing a 9.5k run around Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra over an hour. I was pretty proud of myself with this one, I've never run that far outdoors before!
-at least 1000cal in not including lunch & morning tea, I forget what I ate but no doubt I'd be at least hitting 1700cal again
Saturday:
-332cal out doing a 4.91k to the lake and back in 30min.
-at least 1700cal in not including lunch, I forget what I ate but I no doubt would have exceeded 2000cal
Sunday:
-headed home on an early morning flight. Thank goodness for that. I'd turn into a blimp if the conference had gone for much longer!
-550cal out
-1232cal in including Mish's basil & walnut pesto spaghetti with roast pumpkin & tomato. This was super delicious despite the fact there was such little sauce - it didn't matter! And no oil!

Monday:
-back at uni, planned to be good but willpower deserted me again when there was free pancakes at the student union. 1384cal in, including Mish's korean hot pot for tea which was quite yummy and filling.
-615cal out doing Mish's fitness fat burner workout at the gym. Definitely gets the heart pumping!!!

Tuesday:
-finally hit that magic <1200cal number again with 1112cal in today, including Mish's Korean-style omelette today. Pretty bland to be honest.
-380cal out doing total body toning & abs.

Today I've been good. I had Mish's breakfast crumble for breakie which wasn't bad (though probably not filling enough for me), and had the omelette again for lunch with the addition of salt, pepper, and about a tablespoon of light soy sauce - this significantly improved the overall taste!

So far I've 674cal in and 750cal out, with dinner (& probably a snack or two) to go. Tonight I'm having Mish's beef stroganoff for tea so that should be pretty yummy I hope.

Canberra

Well I'm sitting here in Canberra waiting for my room to be ready, I'm here for a conference. Anyway, it's been a week since I last posted so I've got a bit of catching up to do!

Friday
Friday night dinner was the calorie blowout I had predicted - between the roast lamb (with cauliflower gratin, beans, roast pumpkin, roast potato, roast capscium & gravy) & my sister's waffle rhubarb chocolate pudding, I ended up eating a little over 1900cal for the day according to My Fitness Pal, and it could have been more than that, who knows. Oh well.

Saturday
I had a killer day at work, working 9-4:30pm with only 15min off. I had Mish's carrot, basil & ricotta wrap for lunch which was delicious but gave me terrible garlic breath so I had to brush my teeth before seeing more clients! By the time I got home I didn't have too long before I had to head out again, to a friend's place for dinner. We ended up getting Thai takeaway and so the day's cals came in at around 1600 or so. No exercise :(

Sunday
Worked out for 45min, burning 450cal. Day's cals in came to just over 1200 but I didn't eat breakfast and ate a lot of snacks instead, which I know is bad.

Monday
Drove back to Gippsland in the morning, had a break in the middle of the day so worked out for 64min, burning 630cal. Big workout! Have decided to follow Advanced Lean & Fit as Intermediate is a bit too easy a program for me. Ate 600cal of snacks though, effectively negating my positive workout. Came in at just under 1400cal for the day. Had Mish's sticky bbq beef slaw for dinner, was a bit heavy handed with the shallots so I didn't love the slaw, but otherwise the meal was good.

Tuesday
Worked out for 65min, burning 550cal. I am enjoying Mish's workouts so far. Today I was good until I had to drive back to Melbourne again for a family dinner. Ate Mish's spaghetti bolognaise for tea (yummy), but also had dessert - apricot cakes with lemon sauce & icecream, and a slice of sultana cake. OH and 4 slices of sourdough bread with butter. Eeekk.... Surprise surprise the days cals came in at just over 2000. My worst effort so far since starting the program :(.

Wednesday
Unsuprisingly when I weighed myself this morning I had PUT ON 300g. Fair enough given my lack of willpower concerning food this week. Worked out for 60min, burning 528cal. Had Mish's lentil shepherd's pie for tea which I really enjoyed, and a cold chicken drumstick. Day's cals came in at about 1280 or so.

So that brings us to today! I knew it would be a struggle to fit in a workout today what with flying to Canberra and attending this conference til Sun. So, my sister, who stayed at mum & dad's last night too, drove us both to her work (closer to the airport), I worked out for 40min at the gym near there, then taxied from there to the airport. I was pretty impressed with myself as this involved a LOT of organisation! It's going to be REALLY hard to control my cals til Sunday, so I am aiming to maintain this week's weight for the next weigh-in rather than try to drop any off (though that would be a bonus!). I didn't eat the snacks on the plane though I did take them, and hopefully over the next few days they will ward off other potential snack attacks I may otherwise go for. I've got all my workout gear with me so I'm going to do my best to use the hotel gym or to run around the lake near here.

Compliments

Yesterday was a day of mixed emotions.
I got my first compliments! And to get 3 in one day started to give me a complex!
Person 1) 'Clare, you look different - have you cut your hair?'
Person 2) 'Clare, you're looking really good'
Person 3) 'Clare, you're looking really good - you look really healthy!'
Given the quote 'It takes 4 weeks for you to notice a change, 8 weeks for your friends to notice, and 12 weeks for the rest of the world to notice' I'm doing well! I started exercising July 12, calorie counting July 13, and I think I didn't start making dietary changes til about July 15. So I am happy others are noticing changes within the four week mark (I have lost 3kg in about 3.5 weeks).
Anyway, so that was good. I had a 45min gym sesh in the morning, I was annoyed at myself for not getting out of the house quicker so I could get a full hour in before class, and even by 2km I was hurting so I told myself I'd just run 2.5km. Well I kept telling myself just one more km just one more km and before I knew it I had run 7.57km in 45min flat. I was pretty happy with that - I just had to talk myself out of quitting.
After 7 hours of uni I ducked home to grab my doggy then drove 2 hours to visit my parents in Melbourne. Waiting for me was my first ever speeding fine in over 10 years of driving. Urgh (on a happier note, I later discovered that because I haven't had a fine in the last 2 years, I wasn't more than 10km/hr over the limit, and I'd been fully licensed for >2 years, I was eligible to apply for a warning instead. I have written a letter, so fingers crossed).
By the time I got to Mum & Dads it was approaching 7pm so I asked what was for dinner. Mum said 'I thought you were cooking it?'....oh dear. I was already a bit on edge due to the $180 fine, so this made me a bit irritated given my monster day. Poor Mum! I was starving so as usual couldn't help myself and gorged on some potato chips. Anyway, I made Mish's asian chicken patties with warm noodle salad, and it didn't take too long. Mum and I both really enjoyed it (Dad ate some chops, haha!). I definitely think it needs the dressing though - roughly a tsp of lime juice, a tbsp of each of fish sauce & soy sauce, and a pinch of brown sugar. After dinner I was still feeling a bit irritable so emotionally ate two pieces of raspberry & coconut slice. *sigh*. Oh well. I can only do better. Totals for the day were 531cal out, roughly 1334cal in (over 600 of which were the chips and slice!!!)...

Today is a new day, so I am owning my emotional eating of yesterday and trying to do better. Started with taking my measurements. This will mean that even if I put weight on, if my measurements go down I will know it is muscle I am putting on, which weighs more than fat.
I thought I'd give one of Mish's exercise videos a go. I did the 'earn the burn' video and followed the advanced moves. I was a little disappointed to only burn 383cal doing the video, but I jumped around like a crazy woman to FitRadio afterwards for another 20min, taking it up to 507cal.
My Dad is going to the US for 6 weeks on Monday so tonight we are having a farewell dinner. That will no doubt be a calorie blowout but I will try to restrain myself. Mum is making a roast, my sis is making a dessert, and I'm providing nibbles.

Fitness test & Wednesday weigh-in

So today I had my next weigh-in. I have now lost 3kg! I am pretty darn happy with that :)
Here are my stats:
-weight loss this week (800g)
-fat percentage (25%) - down 0.3%
-total body water (55.8%) - up 0.2%
-muscle percentage (35.8%) - up 0.1%
-bone weight (2kg)
-BMI 23.2 - down 0.3
-recc daily caloric intake (2331cal) - up 21?

I also did my fitness test today. This was a fair challenge, not only physically, but logistically. There are no athletics tracks around here, and I really struggled to find a flat area with no cars that I could do my 1km time trial on. I eventually settled for marking out the 1km distance (using GPS on my phone) around a slightly boggy soccer pitch. The bogginess & strong headwind did not help me, but I was still happy with my time, though I was wheezing slightly at the end, despite not having asthma since I was a little kid (cold air perhaps?).
-1km time trial: 5min exactly
-Knee push-ups in 1min: 47
-Plank on knees: 2min
-Wall sit: 1min30s (this was a massive struggle)
-Sit & reach beyond toes: +7cm
I know I can do a lot better than these esp with the wall sit and sit & reach as in the past I have got results much better than this. But it is a useful place to start to gauge any improvements.
After the fitness test I ran another couple of kms (slowly!) then came home and walked the dog, burning a total of 615cal.

End of pre-season

So, this week is the end of pre-season! A quick update since Sat:

The potluck party went well. I would have eaten 1000cal easily. I made pizza muffins & a gluten- and wheat-free chocolate brownie (excellent easy recipe from taste.com.au), and everyone else contributed other home-made goodies: wedges, chicken pies, chicken dumplings, chicken quiches, and a lamb rogan josh! So we certainly did not go hungry. It was a late night with the last guests leaving around 1am, I was completely stuffed by then.

Sunday I slept in a bit then hit the gym. I've invented a new work-out which is quite fun. I've had to as after cycling on the gym bike like crazy I have blisters on my bum! Can't hardly believe it! So here is my workout invention:
-run 5km as fast as possible - aim for 30min or less (speed 10.0+), at incline of 0
-decrease speed to 6.0, walk until HR drops to under 150 (should take no more than 2-3 min)
-for the remainder of that 5min, increase incline to 15, drop speed to 5.0
-35-40min: decrease incline to 14.5, increase speed to 5.5
-40-45min: decrease incline to 14, increase speed to 6.5
-45-50min: decrease incline to 13.5, keep speed at 6.5
-50-55min: decrease incline to 13, keep speed at 6.5
-55-60min: decrease incline to 12.5, keep speed at 6.5. For the last 2min speed up on 0.0 incline (if necessary) to complete 8km in 60min.
I find this to be an excellent workout. Mind you, I have to hold on to the treadmill in the second half hour otherwise I would fall off! I find this workout reliably burns at least 700cal in the hour.

Also bought a protein bar today, and ate it in quarters throughout the day. Was surprised how full it made me - in total for the day I was 810 cal out and 849cal in.

Monday was a different story. Known as 'PBL Mondays', the first half of the day always involves sampling a little of the delicious home-made treats one person has brought in each time. I ate one tim-tam and one slice of cake (chocolate with chocolate frosting & Reece's Pieces!) which totalled about 640cal just for the both of those! Eek! Also felt a bit rotten during my gym session due to having just eaten the cake, though still managed the same work-out as Sunday (but had a 1min break at the 2.5km mark). Burnt 860cal and ate 1525cal. Need to do a bit better than that...

Today was a new day and I resolved to eat clean and eat 1200cal or less. Burnt a total of 800cal through gym (same workout as previous day) and dogwalk. 

Started the day with 2 thick rice-crackers with thin scraping of vegemite on each one, then later ate a banana, lunch was Mish's spinach & ricotta filo parcels. After lunch I really hit the wall. I had massive cravings & felt a bit weak and I think it's because I had done a huge workout as usual, and taken in only about 3/4 of the cal I had burnt off at the gym. Went home early and had a hot chocolate (60cal), 120cal worth of chocolate, and a few apricot bites and felt a lot better. Tonight I plan to eat a farmer's market cheese & chive sausage for tea, and have it with half a packet of cheese & cracked pepper pasta (415cal). I'm trying to eat my way through the cupboard before 12wbt officially kicks off next week (I know, I know, I'm supposed to throw it out, but I cannot stand wasting food). I'll have to find another snack to make up the 1200cal...maybe an apple or something. I'm still REALLY struggling to drink even the bare minimum of water each day, despite dripping with sweat during my workouts. I know this must be really bad for me. Any tips would be appreciated.

I'm in the process of trying to find an athletics track somewhere around here so I can do my 1km time trial as part of my fitness test. Tomorrow I have the day off (well, I will be working from home) and I'm going to investigate a local oval where the local Little Aths is held - I know its grass not synthetic, but I'm hoping it has some markings on it for the 400m. 

Indian blues...

Hi all,
Haven't chimed in for a few days as I was sick for about 48 hours after I ate the Indian. All day Thursday I alternated between feeling nauseous and having bad tummy pains, and when I was heading home in the arvo I nearly fainted in the car (luckily I was not driving!). It was a big day too as I had to leave home at 6:40am to get to my hospital placement over an hour away and wasn't home til about 6pm as I get my dust mite injections each Thursday fortnight after I get home from the hospital.
Unsurprisingly did fine with the cals, had muesli with yoghurt for breakfast, Mish's veggie fritters for lunch, a cheese & chive scone as a snack, and two rice crackers for tea. Was so flat out (and not feeling well anyway) so only managed a quick dog walk, burning 100cal.
Friday I woke up and thankfully was feeling back to normal. I rode 15.53km on the bike in 30min and also went on the treadmill for 30min on the steepest possible incline (therefore only did 3km), burning a total of 676cal inc my 20min dog walk after uni. Ate muesli and banana for breakfast, Mish's corn fritters & an apple for lunch, & made Mish's ricotta & spinach filo parcels for tea (YUM!). Still struggled to make up the cals so attempted some air-popped popcorn (epic fail) & had a tim-tam. Came in at <1000cal for the day which is a bit below what I'd like.
Today I got up & was going to head to the gym but my doggy was looking at me so pleadingly I thought I'd go for a super long walk with him instead. Walked at a steady pace for 1.5hrs and only burnt 400cal which was a bit disappointing but he really enjoyed himself & so did I. Made Mish's chicken & leek pies for lunch and these were really amazing! So yummy.

Tonight we're hosting a potluck dinner party so cals are going to go out the window tonight, but that's okay cos I'll be hitting the gym hard again tomorrow morning :)