Oh dear. It seems like it's been a while longer since my last post than I realised.
Well, a bit has happened, most importantly that it was a long weekend here in Sydney! It was exciting as hubby and I had booked into a little b&b called Broomelea in the Blue Mountains. We stayed there in April this year, our first visit to the Blue Mountains, and we loved it so much that we booked another stay.
I tried to get my weekly long run out on Friday morning and that was a disaster. I couldn't run the whole time and ended up run/walking for the allotted time which really annoyed me. I know I hadn't been consistent but I was going at a slow pace and just trying to run for time.
That annoyed me for most of the day but come Friday afternoon, it was time to brush it off and head for the Mountains! We stopped in Katoomba for a pub meal for dinner and then onwards to Leura. We spent the evening planning our walks for the weekend. It started with a 5 hr, moderate track in Blackheath, starting at the Govett's Leap lookout. We arrived at Govett's Leap, I stepped out of the car and walked towards the lookout point. I was immediately breathless - I had forgotten how beautiful the Blue Mountains are. After making our way through the bush, it's dinner at the local Leura Pub, the Alexandra Hotel.
The next day, it was a short walk after breakfast and then high tea for lunch (woot!) before a drive to the Jenolan Caves. I was told the caves were amazing, and it was not a lie. We managed to get onto the last Lucas Cave tour of the day - the largest cave at Jenolan. For dinner we swing into a place called the "Yellow Deli" in Katoomba for an early dinner. Now - we were told that it was run by a religious sect / cult-esque group. Perhaps that's true, but the food was great! We split a chicken burger and a pumpkin soup - delish!
The next morning, it was a breezy drive back to Sydney, but not before we squeeze in a final walk. A short 1hr walk, which awkwardly took us through the Leura Golf Course, to a couple of less visited but equally rewarding lookout points.
Thursdays are the days that 12wbt-ers get the meal and exercise plans for the following week. It usually also comes with an eDM with some sort of message. Today's message from Michelle: "Time to Pull Up Your Socks!" - and indeed it is.
I'm not one of those people who have had magical makeovers on the 12wbt. Unfortunately, I can blame no one but myself as I'm notoriously bad at keeping to the meal plan. Usually it's because I'm too picky or too lazy to prepare certain dishes. But I'm usually ok at substituting meals which still fit the calorie limits.
Of the three rounds I've done so far, my first round was probably the most successful. My second round was less to do with weight loss and more to do with becoming a runner, which as I type this, I guess I kinda have. Who would have thought that I would be able to run 10kms without stopping? Definitely not me.
When I signed up for my third 12wbt round, I had taken 12 weeks off and was trying to get back into the running so I decided to do the 10km running program once again. I planned (note: planned) to be more consistent with following the meal and exercise plan. I wanted to be a runner and I wanted to lose weight dammit! Unfortunately, my plan didn't go to, well, plan.
Week 1: Skipped because I had done C2S the day before week 1 started and I had the flu so I thought I'd rest up.
Week 2: Back on board with the program and went pretty well. Ran 7kms for my long run in prep for the Sydney Running Festival Bridge Run.
Week 3: Still ok, flew to Melbourne for my sister's wedding. Did 8kms around the Tan, nearly died going up Anderson Street the second time, but success! Ate waaaaaay too much food over the weekend.
Week 4: Tired but pushed through Monday's and Tuesday's workouts. Tuesday out for a work lunch and again, consumed too much food. Was very sick the next few days (not from the food fortunately!), diagnosed with a chest infection. Halt all exercise, definitely did not stick to the meal plan!
Week 5: Was still weak for pretty much all of week 5 and decided not to workout. Tried to follow the meal plan with some success.
Week 6: The Sydney Running Festival was on the Sunday of this week so I didn't want to exercise and exert myself too much as I had longer than usual work days, most spent standing, as I was at a conference for the better part of the
week.
So looks like the first half of the 12wbt was pretty much in shambles for me. I skipped Week 7's Monday workout to recover from the 9km bridge run and was back on on Tuesday. Two days in and I'm struggling a little. I keep feeling hungry despite me thinking I've actually consumed enough food, which is frustrating. But as Michelle says, it's Time to Pull Up Your Socks! I guess a lost few weeks here and there is better than giving up now and losing the next few weeks. Plus, as one of the memes I've posted to my Pinterest wall says "If you're tired of starting over, stop giving up".
So this is me - Pulling Up My Socks. Let's see what we can do in the next 5 weeks.
[me]
It appears that I am slowly sliding off the wagon with my blog posts! Unfortunately, work has been flat out, but fun, the last week.
It kicked off last Sunday with a four day conference at the Menzies Sydney. It was an international academic conference which we had been working on for the better part of the year. While the turnout was not large, the delegates who did attend the conference, was great! Delegates were from all over the globe - China, Japan, Norway, Finland, USA.
Conference days were long and recovering from the chest infection, my daily exercise was a short 30 min walk to the conference. Originally, I also planned to walk home but spending close to all day on my feet, it was the train for me. I also knew that we had the 9k Sydney Bridge Run and didn't want to train during the week because while I had finished my dose of antibiotics and pretty much recovered from the chest infection, I felt like my body still needed the rest as I was still walking up tired after 8 hours sleeps.
Today, the weather was fabulous for the Sydney Bridge Run - 23 degrees and sunny. I wasn't able to run the whole distance - there was a lot of run/walking - but was happy with my overall time. Time to plan the next fun run!
The chest infection is slowly being pushed out of me with the aid of the antibiotics that the doctor prescribed, but I've had to give up running and really, all forms of cardio. Being sick just prior to the City2Surf and now this, I'm keen to see it go for good! I haven't quite made it to the gym to do weights, but I've swapped my morning runs / running drills for morning yoga. And boy am I enjoying that swap.
I've always loved yoga, but I've always prioritized running or weights over it. I've always wanted to be a runner (though I'm not quite there yet!) and I love the feeling of finishing up an intense weights session. I usually try to get in a yoga session once a week (if I'm lucky) but that's about it. I try not to over train and tend to use yoga as a means of stretching.
In trying to recover as well as I can, I've swapped my morning runs for morning yoga. I haven't go straight into strong challenging vinyasa classes yet as I'm still wary of raising the heart rate too much and needing to breathe too heavily to avoid putting any strain on my lungs. My mornings now start with a 45min morning vinyasa or hatha class, depending on how I feel, on yogaglo.com. I absolutely love yogaglo, which was recommended to me by my best friend, who recently became a yoga instructor herself. Fave yogis at the moment are Jason Crandell and Tiffany Cruickshank - both with strong vinyasa classes with good lengths of meditation at the end.
It has been such a joy to find yoga again that I'm going to have to figure out some way to squeeze a couple more classes into the week when I'm back running. If you haven't already discovered yogaglo, I highly recommend it!
xoxo me
No, not because I enjoy avoiding having clean hair and skin,but because it's been a couple of days since I've had the energy to do so. Unfortunately, with my plan of it being a new week for new wins has already fallen flat on its face, but not of any fault of mine.
Well actually, Tuesday was a bit of a failure as I enjoyed a fabulous 4 hour work lunch to celebrate by 30th, a colleague's babe and yet another colleague's wedding. My plan to to only have a main, which turned into an entree, main, dessert plus wine. It was so so wrong, yet absolutely delicious!
This is definitely not directly related, but I'm sure this is me paying for it in some sort of "karma-tic" way. By the time we got back to the office late Tuesday afternoon, I started feeling decidedly average. When we got home, I skipped dinner and turned in early at about 9pm. The next morning, I woke up with a high grade fever and called in sick. Despite taking panadol, the fever wouldn't budge. Eventually, my husband came home early and took be to see the doctor who confirmed it as a chest infection. Chest infection?? CHEST INFECTION!?!? Where in the blazes did that come from? The doctor threw some antibiotics at me and I was back home in bed.
I'm trying to google to workout when I can start exercising again but I'm getting answers all over the place. I might have to ask my doctor again. It is a little frustrating as hubby and I have signed up for the 9km bridge run. While I really want to run it, I will walk it if I have to or pass on it completely to avoid developing some sort of long term damage.
So there might not be too much 12wbt related things on the blog in the next week (or weeks) to come, but I'll try to post on some other interesting things that come up in my life!
My sister got married on the weekend on a gloriously sunny and warm Saturday afternoon. My family and family friends were flying in for the wedding and we also have friends in Melbourne who we hardly get to see. It was going to be a massive weekend. So, before heading off, I had a plan of attacked all worked out:
> Friday: We were flying to Melbourne over dinner. Lucky for me, it was a Jetstar flight, meaning no plane food provided! The goal was to have a snack in the arvo, get something healthy at the airport before getting on the plane, land in Melbourne and meet a friend at Max Brenner's for a drink, but only order tea.
> Saturday: SSS in the morning, get some fruit/yoghurt to have as breakkie while getting my hair done. Ceremony at 11, canapes at 12. Avoid canapes. They were going to have a choice menu so I thought I could skip the entree, order the best sounding main, skip or only have a nibble of dessert. Go out and meet more friends for dinner.
> Sunday: Post-wedding breakfast at a place unknown to me. Order a sensible breakfast. Buy something sensible for lunch to eat on the flight home. Have some sort of soup and bread for dinner.
So things didn't go 100% to plan I have to say. But it didn't go terribly. Here's how it all went down...
> Friday: Bought sushi - three pieces salmon, three pieces prawns and two mini (cooked) tuna slices. Gave in to temptation and also bought a mini tin of Pringles, which I halved with hubby. Also had two oreo cookies which I discovered stashed in my bag. Met my mate at Max Brenner, ordered green tea and one chocolate.
> Saturday: 8km run around the Tan. Punnet of strawberries and tub of Vaalia yoghurt for breakkie. Had three canapes, ordered a salad as entree, fish with a bean puree for main and then went halvesies on dessert with hubby (we split 1 lamington, 1 mini cupcake, 1 mini lemon meringue tart, 2 macaroons). Ordered a bento-style box dinner at a Taiwanese cafe where the main contents were crispy honey beef and steamed white rice. Discovered family friends were not going to post-wedding breakfast, met at San Churro and had, Churros.
> Sunday: Breakfast was a buffet at the hotel the bride and groom stayed at. I should have just gone with a small serve of muesli and yoghurt but ended up with hot food. I don't think I went overboard and we walked 30 mins back into the city when we were done so I didn't feel too horrible. I then had a mini cupcake and bought some takeaway lunch before heading to the airport. Lunch was consumed late on the plane and it was rice with some Indonesian dishes from one of my fave takeaway joints. Upon arrive home, it was straight to the shop. Let's say dinner was not nutritious at all and consisted of a packet of vege chips (but there's veges in it!) and about 6 bits of a malaysian peanut/sugar snack that probably comes in at about 100 calories each.
I'm not sure if I feel terrible, or if I actually feel ok about the weekend. Despite what I ate on Friday, which exceeded Michelle Bridge's recommended 1200 calories, it was still under my BMR and I had done some extra walking that day. Plus, I was proud to have ordered only tea and one bit of chocolate while at Max Brenner. Saturday started off strong but again, rather than getting a hot chocolate as well as churros, I stuck with tea. I probably did crack the overall daily caloric intake quite well, but it was a good day. Sunday, I'm not quote as proud of. The only win being actually admitting to myself at night that I was no longer hungry for dinner because I had so much snacks, and didn't have dinner just for the sake of having dinner. Can't say it felt like the healthiest thing to do, but I guess it comes down to the why eat when you aren't hungry?
So I've decided, win or lose over the weekend, it's now a new week, week four to be exact, and it's a new week for new wins.
xoxo me
Week 2 of the 12wbt has come to a close and unfortunately, my willpower muscle is not as strong as it used to be. Or perhaps, it has never been that strong and I need to exercise it just that little but more. So it would seem fitting that Michelle Bridge's weekly email on the 12wbt program is titled "Power Up That Willpower Muscle!"
Here's what happened over the weekend that left me feeling defeated: it started on Friday. We headed out to the cinemas for a movie and I consumed a packed of chips, I told myself it would be ok because it would be my treat meal and besides, I had a 7km run on Saturday.
Saturday rolled around, I ran I had breakkie and lunch and all was going well. Then hubby and I sat down to play Fallout 3 (yes, I'm that sort of girl!) and I end up eating some of his left over pods and a packet of chilli peas, totalling about 1000 calories. When it was time for dinner, I ended up just having some Pitango tomato soup which is all I really felt like. After dinner, we end up playing games until midnight.
While we slept in a little more, I woke up Sunday morning feeling tired and regretful for having stayed up so late. After two pieces of toast with some peanut butter and a nashi pear for breakfast, I couldn't shake the feeling of hunger. I have an extra slice of toast with peanut butter. Lunch was pretty good - a 12wbt recipe - open steak sanga with caramelised onions. Delish. Things are looking better and then it's Pizza Hut for dinner. I won't go into detail as to what I ate but as you can imagine it wasn't good.
There is definitely a feeling for regret and anger for not having more will power. The whole weekend made me recall an article I read on self control: What Can Self-Control Do For You? 10 New Studies Provide Surprising Answers. The most important point here being #1 - Can it make you happier?. This point summarises information from a scientific journal article, "Yes, But Are They Happy? Effects of Trait Self-Control on Affective Well-Being and Life Satisfaction". Basically, their research showed that people with high self-control are happier because it helps them deal better with goal conflict. These people with high self-control didn't spend time or waste emotional energy agonising over what they are eating or doing. For me, this would have been saying no to foods that opposed to the goal I wanted to achieve and to turning off the PS3 at 10pm so get a good nights rest.
Something to remember for week #3. Will power and self-control.
