This is NOT my week!

Last week was my week. I smashed my workouts every day, and ate well. Of course I did, I usually have three children and suddenly had none for a week!

I missed them, but this week they are back home, and back to school, and it's coincided with a busy week at my main job, and deadline rapidly approaching for my second job. Ho-hum. Not going so well.

On the bright side, we're heading down to Margaret River for a family weekend tomorrow afternoon - a 10km fun run on Sunday with some fellow Perth Crew members, and staying in lovely chalets until Monday morning, where the kids can feed animals and run about. Should be lovely!

Shopping!

My partner and I went and bought this tonight - it has 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12.5 & 15kg dumbbells on. I am not lifting the heavier ones yet, they are for him! We also got a compact incline bench that can easily be put away, so I should at least be able to improvise some decent workouts at home now (we have a barbell and plates, plus adjustable dumbbells but the dumbbells are such a pain to adjust when you're trying to do various exercises that require different weights), for days when I can't get to the gym.

After five weeks I'm finally starting to get the hang of doing weights, of feeling like I belong in the gym and in the lean and strong program. Yay!

Life is good.

I'm feeling happy today.

Another person told me that it was my pictures and my journey that had convinced them to join 12WBT. I am doing this for me, not for others, but it is gratifying to be thought of as a success story. I know this program works and I love it, but I'd be just as happy if someone said they had started exercising or started eating healthier food - I want all my friends to be healthy and happy*.

I'm sitting here in new size eight work pants, which fit without being uncomfortable. In January this year, when I sat down in size 14 pants it was uncomfortable and tight. My body has changed THAT much, and it's not just about a size on a tag, it's about no longer being bloated and constantly uncomfortable, it's about no longer having a waist measurement that puts me at increased risk of heart disease and other health problems. It's about being able to move around and lift things, like my children, without pain because I have a stronger core. (Although "without pain" is not always the case, I worked my triceps yesterday and they are a little sore today! That's good pain though, not pain that indicates a malfunction within my body.)

It's nearly time to finish up for the day and head to the gym where I am going to smash my legs and even brave the Smith Machine for the first time (that big rack thingy so I can put more weight on my barbell squats without taking my head off).

Life is good.


* Just a note - this does not always mean thin. You can be thin, unhappy and unhealthy.

(So I wrote that and didn't have time to post it before going to the gym. At the gym, I actually asked one of the trainers how to use the Smith machine, because I couldn't work it out on my own. This is HUGE for me. Smashed the set workout and then walked home for my extra cardio, had to walk fast to make it in time for the live feed!)

Mini-challenge

So one of the awesome Perth Crew members threw down the challenge - 4km in 20 minutes using intervals. I like a challenge, and I can argue that this kind of running is not incompatible with Lean & Strong - it builds strength!! I hopped on the treadmill at the gym today, I'd done my maths, figured 1 min at 10 / 1 min at 14 would do it. Of course, it doesn't work that way because of all the time spent changing speed. I worked this out after 2 and a half minutes when I hadn't gotten to 0.5km yet! I bumped up the intervals to 14.2/11.2. 11.2 is about the pace at which I can run a half-marathon so I figured it was manageable.

DONE!

Today was core day on the program and I didn't neglect that either, did an Abs Butts & Thighs class before the treadmill, with lots of planks and crunches.

I am sore, but I can do this. I AM doing this!

Hard.

I went hard today; I had to do the workout in two parts but I got it all done. Mostly in the gym this morning before a quick meeting at work - followed by a site meeting with the supervisor for our renovation, since I'm not even supposed to work Mondays. THAT'S another story, major stuff-up and huge stressor.

I had to leave the single leg calf raises and ab circuit for home, which isn't ideal but isn't really a huge problem as they don't require equipment. I struggle to get more than 45 minutes in the gym due to fitting in work, school drop-off and school pick-up, and I can't let it become an excuse again.

Today was legs (quads and calves) and at least on these ones I can make the bottom end of the recommended weight range!! When I did back and biceps last week it was quite pitiful, really. I'm sure I'll see improvements in 12 weeks :)

I think I will be sore tomorrow.

Food-wise, this week hasn't been perfect but it has been good. Lots of good choices, and some better-than-they-might-have-been choices ;)

In more exciting news, I have booked flights and accommodation for the Round 3 finale in Sydney. The Perth Crew are coming over in force!

Ready, set ...

... GO! Tomorrow morning, anyway.

It's a busier week than normal for me as I'm working extra hours with my Business Development Manager in town from Sydney. It's also my birthday on Tuesday! Workouts are diarised - all squeezed in somewhere. Food plan is adjusted for the nights I need to cook something quicker. Lasagne was made tonight, for example, for eating a couple of times during the week, and I'm about to go boil my eggs for lunches.

I did my fitness test this afternoon and FINALLY got past stage 0 in abs, well, I think I did. I worry that maybe I was swinging my arms a little to get momentum?? But it's definitely an improvement and I'll take it. 1km time trial was 4:09, which included dodging half a dozen groups of wedding photography, the downside of running in a notoriously picturesque park on a beautiful spring day. Pushups 32, I definitely need to work on that and hopefully Lean & Strong will see that figure increase significantly.

What was I thinking?

I thought it would be a good idea to put my hand up for Amelia Burton's Twitter '#CrackofArse' challenge this week, that is, training between 5 and 7 each morning.

OMGWTFBBQ I am tired.

But in all seriousness, it WAS a good idea, because this week is crazy busy and I need that motivation to get me up in the morning so I can actually fit my training in.

I have a second job that I do from home, for a magazine, and it has a monthly deadline. Today was deadline and somehow even when I try to do things well in advance, I always end up having heaps to do the night before. So I was up until 2 and then up at 6 to train. Tonight I should get to bed a *little* earlier, but not much.

I will say, though, that for most of the day I felt better than I would have if I'd gotten up at 6.45 and NOT trained. I know this, but I manage to forget it over and over again ;)

12WBT on a budget

I hear a lot of "it's so expensive to eat healthy" in general, and then at the start of 12WBT, "it's so expensive to eat this way/cook these recipes". It is entirely possible to eat healthy, 12WBT-style on a family budget (or a single person's budget, but my tips probably don't work so well for that).

I spend about $200 a week on food and groceries for two adults and three big-eating children. I know plenty of people who spend less, but I do believe this is below the average. About half of what I buy, on average, is organic, and I try to buy ethically where possible (free-range chicken and eggs, no Nestle as I boycott them due to their shoddy marketing of formula in third-world countries, no slave chocolate - oh wait, chocolate is not 12WBT-friendly anyway, LOL).

Here are some of the tips that work for me:

1. Learn what meat cuts/types you need, and look out for them marked down or in catalogue specials. I always pick up lean beef mince, turkey mince, chicken breast, kangaroo, whole chickens, lamb cutlets and lean pork if I see them on special, as these are all used in 12WBT recipes or in my own 12WBT-friendly recipes.

2. If you have the freezer space, buy in bulk and freeze in suitable portion sizes for your family's needs. This works for meat - many good butchers will sell cheaply in bulk - as well as 'luxury' items like frozen berries. Additionally, many, many things can be frozen to reduce waste. Try freezing sliced ham, Weight Watchers bacon, ricotta cheese, milk, chopped fruit, chopped vegetables, bread, Mountain Bread wraps - www.mountainbread.com has free delivery and is much cheaper than supermarkets - homemade stock, cooked shredded chicken breast, the list goes on.

3. Do not buy fruit and vegetables from the supermarket! The quality is usually poor (long storage times, produce selected for appearance instead of quality/taste) and the prices expensive. Find a good local growers' market, fruit and vegetable shop, or even better a farmer's market. Buy as fresh as possible for eating raw, but if you're going to cook with it (e.g. soup or stews), keep an eye out for marked-down bags of produce. I get my produce delivered from www.aussiefarmersdirect.com.au due to the time and convenience factor, and the prices are comparable to the supermarket. Occasionally I go to the bulk overstock markets at Canning Vale and purchase big boxes of various fruit and vegies that I either cook up, or chop and freeze.

4. Learn about seasonal fruit and vegetables. Joy of joys, it is spring and I can finally eat fruit other than apples, pears and oranges - strawberries and cherries are coming into season! The recipes on the program don't always use seasonal fruit and vegetables, so learn to substitute. If you're new to cooking, ask on the forums for suitable substitutions.

5. The substitution rule can be applied in other instances too. Smoked salmon too expensive and you got lean ham on special? Use the ham. Have an open packet of something needing used up? Either substitute it into the day's planned recipe, or switch the recipe entirely.

6. Get to know the recipe index. Tight week? Shop from your pantry - take a look in there and work out what recipes you can make with what you already have.

In addition to these tips, remember that if you're anything like me, you'll be spending less on takeaway, dining out, and processed foods than you were before. That helps me when I want to buy, say, some cherries, which at $12.98/kg sound expensive, but I can buy a good few cherries for the price of a chocolate bar - and a lot fewer calories.

Potato and leek soup (Thermomix) - 196 cal

I love, love LOVE potato and leek soup, but I always figured it would be quite high in calories (and perhaps it usually is, depending on the recipe). I cobbled this together after looking at various recipes tonight and it's delish at under 200 calories without bread - a slice of bread would bring it in at just under 300 calories which would also be good. Not for accelerator days due to the potatoes of course, and for that reason I'll probably have it for light lunches during the week instead of dinners.

It serves three because that's the quantity that fits in the Thermomix. Calorie contents are taken from Calorie King.

Potato and leek soup

Ingredients
--------

1 large leek, chopped roughly (include as much of the green as possible)
1 small onion, halved
500g potatoes, peeled and cubed
10g olive oil
700mL water with 1tbsp vegetable stock concentrate (if you don't have this, use 720mL vegetable or chicken stock)
120mL milk (I used full-cream, you could use skim for even fewer calories)
Freshly ground pepper to taste


Method
------

Place leek and onion in TMX, chop approx. 10 second on speed 7. Add olive oil and saute for 5 minutes at 100deg on speed 1.

Add potatoes, water & stock concentrate. Cook for 20 minutes at 100deg on speed 1.

Add milk. Turn dial from 1 to 8 for approx 30 seconds or until desired consistency.

Season with pepper to taste.

If you don't have a Thermomix, chop the onion and leeks more thinly to start with. Saute with olive oil in a pan until soft (10g is 2 teaspoons). Add stock & potatoes, bring to the boil, simmer for a while (LOL, I don't know, I never make soup on the stove top anymore, 30 minutes?). Remove from heat, add milk and blend with a stick blender or in a blender jug/food processor until desired consistency.

First Pilates class tomorrow

Tomorrow I'm going to my first Pilates class at the gym. Ever since I started 12WBT I have been saying I'll go to Pilates, but haven't. I think I really need personal Pilates reformer classes, but I just can't find a time and location that works for me to commit to regularly, so I figure this is better than nothing. My core is not quite as hopeless as it was six months ago, anyway. I'm trialling a lunchtime class, 12.10-12.50. I'll see how I go!

City to Surf

We did it!! Fellow Perth Crew member Karin and I completed the City to Surf half-marathon this morning. Firstly, I have to say Karin is an absolute rockstar. She originally had this race as her goal, but injured herself towards the beginning of Round 2 and had to have six weeks off running. She hadn't trained towards this (though had still been running approximately 50km a week), and made a last minute decision YESTERDAY AFTERNOON to register. Karin absolutely smashed it in 2:08, I take my hat off to her!

I was absolutely ecstatic with my unofficial time of 1:59.35 - that's from my RunKeeper app which I started as I crossed the start line. The race clock said 2:01 as I crossed, but I'm hoping like mad my official time scrapes in under the two hour mark!! 5-6 minutes quicker than my first half-marathon three weeks ago, and this is a much tougher course. If you're from Perth or have visited, you may know it's pretty flat. I think this course manages to find every hill in the Perth metropolitan area ;)



The 12WBT Perth Crew were represented in every distance today from 4km to the amazing three women who completed their first full marathon. We are all achieving much more than we ever thought possible, and I don't think we would be there if not for Michelle Bridges and the 12 Week Body Transformation. I know I wouldn't.

2nd session and I'm hurting!

Owwww. Today: pec fly, chest press, shoulder presses, tricep pushdowns, tricep dips. Followed by a quick 20 minute run around the oval where my children were having soccer training. I feel like I can hardly walk!!

I am loving the buzz on Twitter, Facebook and the 12WBT forums around this round. It is going to be BIG. Even the Perth Crew is getting BIGGER (but smaller!) I love the social and community aspect of this program. I have made friends that I never thought I would, from all walks of life. I have more confidence to put myself into new situation.



A photo of fellow Perth crew member Ginny and me with Michelle Bridges.

First weights workout at the gym

I did it!! I actually went into the weights section of the gym and did a full work-out. Legs, back & biceps today, according to the program the PT made up for me (and tried to talk me into PT sessions, but I'm too cheap to pay for them on top of gym membership, 12WBT and the running course I've signed up for). I'll do these programs - the other one is for other muscle groups so that I can alternate - until Round 3 officially starts and I get my Lean and Strong programs from Mish.

I did leg presses, squat jumps, lat pulldowns, seated row, bicep curls, rotating curls & finished off with some leg raises and crunches - plus warm-up and cool-down on the treadmill. Go me. I think I'm going to be sore tomorrow, but I will go back in and do the other muscle groups, JFDI.

Finale wrap-up

Welcome to Brisvegas! The weather on Friday afternoon and on Saturday was perfect; quite a change from Round 1 finale in Melbourne. I must say that by Friday night I was absolutely wrecked though. I did the red-eye that left Perth at 1.30am Friday morning (was meant to be 12.30am but was delayed, gee that was fun waiting around Perth's boring domestic airport at that hour), so I got into Brisbane at about 8am. The hotel room wasn't ready until 2pm, so I walked around Brisbane all day - down into the city, across the bridge to Southbank, along Southbank to the Goodwill Bridge and then through the Botanic gardens. Very pretty - but I was tired!! I grabbed about half an hour's sleep before going in to the Hilton to help pack gift bags for a couple of hours. A not-very-quiet dinner with the Perth Crew and then an early night for me.



Saturday morning: workout time. I had heaps of fun helping to register people and matching up a few faces to usernames, before it was time to get sweaty. I did advanced and I really felt like I kept up better than I did in Melbourne - possibly because there were very few sit-ups!! My number one goal for Round 3 is going to be do a damn full sit-up.

It was just really fun and uplifting; such a good vibe around the group.



Saturday night: party time. I need to get some better photos off other people's cameras, but this is me and the absolutely gorgeous and inspiring Noala Gotsis (aka Tink on the forums). She's a Perth girl and just so lovely, I can't wait to see her hit her goal weight this round because I KNOW she's going to do it.

Overall it was such a huge weekend but so much fun. The winners - and everybody I met - inspired me so much, and I can't wait to hit Round 3 hard.

Fired up for Round 3

I'm sorry, my poor neglected blog.

What have I been up to? Working! New job, trying to establish that routine, not just for me, but for the whole family. Business trip to Sydney. Chicken pox for each of the three children.

Somewhere in there - actually, the day of my flight to Sydney - I managed to run my first half-marathon. Official finishing time was 2:05.34. I am absolutely stoked with that time!

What is next? I have signed up for Round 3 of the 12WBT. This time, I am doing Lean and Strong. I've met my running goal, I can put that on the backburner for a while. I have a couple of 10km runs lined up, but L&S is my focus this time.

Before that I have the City to Surf half-marathon in 12 days, and the finale party weekend in Brisbane THIS WEEKEND! I'll see some of you there :D

A challenge for next week

Awesome personal trainer and fellow 12WBT Ambassador Michelle Bryant set us Perth women (& men, I believe there is one male crew member and then a few husbands/partners who sometimes tag along) a challenge this week: burn 1000 calories every day. This was actually the catalyst to my brain-spew. Ugh. I couldn't do it!!

Once I was looking at things a bit more rationally I thought, okay, I really can't do it this week, but NEXT week my kids are going to be away for at least half the week. It's school holidays here and they're going to stay down at the beach with my in-laws to give my mum a break from watching them all the time while I work. So this is my challenge for next week, starting on Sunday with City to Surf hill training.

Everything I've read suggests that when training for a long race, you should peak distance-wise two weeks before the event, and do shorter distances from there on in. With that in mind, I did 16km last weekend, I'll aim for 19km this weekend and 22km the one after (the lake I run around is approximately 3km around), and then taper. With the kids away, though, I'll actually be able to go to the gym and mix things up a bit. Maybe some classes ... can't do the morning ones as I work early, but with no kids there's no reason not to do a 5.30pm class. And some swimming, I've missed swimming. I have size 10 bathers that FIT!! The 14s were gaping a bit, heh.

Only four weeks of this round left; in five weeks I'll be getting ready to go to Brisbane for finale. I'm still undecided about Round 3; while I've reached my goal weight I have definitely NOT reached my toning/strength goals. Hmmm.

New PB!

The GPS kept skipping parts of the race, dammit, that was 10km and measured as such by the WA Marathon Club. My previous PB for 10km was 58 minutes, set back in April. Can't wait to see what my official time was! I went out a bit harder than usual, and the last 2 kilometres were bloody hard work, but I did it.

Soooo, half-marathon goal is under 2hr20min. Can I do it? Watch this space. I am contemplating doing the WAMC half in early August in addition to the City to Surf - the WAMC one is a much flatter course.



Here are the wonderful Perth Crew women who also competed in the Women's Classic today. It was pretty much personal bests across the board, either for times or distance. We ROCK! This was an out-and-back course, so it was really awesome to encourage the other 12WBTers as we passed each other and then at the finish line.

GOAL

My original goal weight was 65kg. This week I weighed in at 64.2kg! That makes 17.1kg since beginning this journey less than six months ago ... and what next? Keep going, follow the program, maybe after the half-marathon in August focus more on strength rather than cardio.

Moved.

We have moved next door for the duration of the renovations. Problem is, we had very little notice, it had to be this weekend because next weekend my partner will be away. My father got suddenly summoned back to the UK as his father is unwell, so he couldn't help much (he is still here but has a million things to do before he leaves tomorrow). I really hope moving house counts as exercise because it's all I did this weekend!

With that and being sick I haven't run in almost two weeks. Tomorrow morning it is going to rain, but I am going to run. In fact, there's a severe weather warning but the worst shouldn't hit until 9am and I'll be back by 6.45am to get ready for work. I'm just going to be doing intervals so I won't be far from home anyway, should it turn scary out there.

I am looking forward to it! Then the 10km Women's Classic on Sunday. I also have a job interview on Wednesday afternoon, so cross your fingers for me! Permanent part-time would be so much better than this temp/short shift gig.

Sorry to be away so long

Sorry, my poor neglected blog.

I've been sick since Saturday, I suspect tonsillitis, but just as I thought I *might* have to go to either the doctor or the naturopath and get something heavy-duty to kill it off, it turned the corner. Now my throat is almost better, but I am still wiped out because I did not rest while I was sick. No time to rest!!

I've been getting our old house ready for sale, and getting this one ready for renovations, which are now scheduled to start on July 7. Believe me, this is exciting! Demolishing an old lean-to extension, converting the current kitchen to ensuite and laundry, and then building a new main bathroom, living, dining and kitchen area. With good luck, it might be done by Christmas. (Don't worry, I'm not holding my breath.)

Anyway, I haven't exercised since a kick-arse session on Saturday morning - except for all the walking I do by necessity - but I've been eating clean, in fact probably not eating quite enough because my throat hurt so much, and lost another 700g at this week's weigh-in. That puts me 300g from my initial goal!