Staying strong

Wow, what a month June has been. I honestly cannot remember the last time I had so many negative and bad things happen in such a short space of of time. From injuries, insane work stress, days and days of sickness, home stresses and to top it all off, the loss of my beloved feline best friend whose been with me for 17 years... from start to finish, the month was crazy.

Cindy

I started the month off very positive but it was just one blow after another coming my way all month. It was hard, and really it still is. Mentally I haven't felt so "weak" since I started this journey 13 months ago. I have missed a few workouts, eaten a few bad foods, but on the whole, I've managed to stay on track.

Right now I am emotionally and mentally exhausted. Since finding out that my cat was very sick ten days ago..and then losing her four days later, I've just been numb. It's been hard this week to even do every day things but especially getting back to the gym. My focus has been off, and the training sessions I have done were even more exhausting than normal.

I know the pain and sadness will eventually get better, and in the mean time I am just trying to look ahead, and get through one day at a time. Obviously my goals are still very important to me, and I am doing my best to remember I just need to keep going.

My goal for the month is to stay strong and get back to feeling like myself again. I need some positivity in my life, so I will do what I can to surround myself with all of the people and things that inspire me the most.

In terms of the challenges I set for myself for June, I think I've probably succeeded with half of them...
- Complete the 30 day ab challenge: failed..but I have started doing more core classes at the gym
- Drink more water: passed, and feeling alot better for it
- Blog more: 50/50...I set up my facebook page so that's been great

- Not weigh myself for the whole month: win win win... I weighed myself for the first time today and it really wasn't that hard to stay away from the scales. I will probably stick with this for the last leg of my weight loss

- Hold back on exercise while my injured toe healed: I managed to do this for two whole weeks, and I am pleased to say that it has healed, and I am able to go about 90% again, but still have to be careful with a few things

Thank you for reading. I appreciate the support I get from everyone..it really means the world to me.

Next week I hope to have an update on the weight situation and some more progress photos.

:)

New challenges & June progress

You guys all know I absolutely love to challenge myself, push hard every single time and say 'YES' to whatever is thrown at me to achieve results. Well I have a new challenge for myself because I just got my very first injury, and I have to change up my routine until I recover.

Out of all the things that I could have injured, it's ended up being my toe. I guess I am lucky that it is only a toe, but at expert orders, I can't do anything high impact on my feet for around 10 days and then see how it goes. 

This means my beloved Body Attack classes are affected. When it was decided that I couldn't just go ahead and do what I normally do...and I had to focus on recovering, the range of emotions I felt was weird and really surprised me. Panic, fear, sadness, anger...yup that's me, dramatic and over thinking everything.
But it's because in the last few months, I've come to realise just how much I love Body Attack, it is my happy place. It's where I feel like I can achieve absolutely anything, and where I have achieved things I never thought were possible for me. I've only just built up to doing all the challenging and higher intensity moves, so having to hold back now, even if its just 10 days, really really annoys me. I'm used to being in control of what my body can and can't do, not the other way around, so for a stupid toe to control me is very frustrating.

Will strength training make me bulky?

Hi guys,

The short answer is...NO!
I wanted to talk about strength training..and the wonders it will do your body and your weight loss efforts.
When I first hit my 'plateau' back in March, I was told to start proper strength training. I'd been doing body weight type exercises for a few months by that stage, and it had already helped re-shape my body a lot...the time had come to start doing more!

I wasn't scared of it making me bulky funnily enough, but I know this is a huge worry for some girls and I really do not know why. I will show you my results below..so keep reading!
At this point all I wanted was something different to change up my routine.. So my PT started me on a basic strength workout using some of the weight machines at the gym like the leg press, lateral pull down, chest press and also basic exercises like squats but using a barbell and lunges with dumbbells.
Very basic but I stuck with it for about 6 weeks. Since then I've added in some new exercises, increased weights and have started doing kettlebells more frequently as well (which is sooo fun!) and I absolutely love it.

One step at a time (or 10,000)

Hi Guys

It's been an interesting couple of weeks for me since my last post. Work has gotten extremely busy and stressful and I've noticed signs of my old 'emotional eating' habits trying to break me. I always used to be an emotional eater, and its taken me many months of discipline to break that unhealthy relationship with food. Being sad, bored, happy etc doesn't make me want to pig out on food nowadays, but something about the stress I've been experiencing at work has really triggered something. For the first time since I started this journey, I don't feel 100% in control and I am having to make a conscious effort to say "No" I will not binge because I am stressed. The food will not actually make it better. I guess the important thing is that I've recognised the signs, and I am doing something about it. My willpower has really had to step up a notch though..

On a completely different note, and to get on with the actual point of this blog post, I wanted to share with you all what my experiences have been since I've acquired myself a Fitbit Zip..which is basically like a fancy pedometer. I started using it about three weeks ago and I have worn it every day, which has been an eye opening experience to say the least!

Things I learned this week!

I've gotten into the 'daily grind' over the last few months so I decided to really think about weekly achievements, anything I've learned, lessons I've picked up... or just things I've realised. This is what I have learned this week:


I am addicted to body attack classes
I kind of already knew this but it was well and truly confirmed when I woke up last night in a bit of a panic after just experiencing a 'nightmare' that I turned up to Friday mornings class, rearing to go, to be told it was cancelled and moved to a lunch time spot. I remember thinking how I was going to make it work in the future with work etc but I was determined to do it. So yup..fully addicted / obsessed / crazy. Find out about this class here ..I love Les Mills and if you have one in your town and thinking of joining a gym...can't get better than LM :)

Don't over do the exercise
Because of said obsession, I decided it would be a grand idea to do a 30min attack class after my 45min boot camp on Monday. I did this the previous week, and was..bearable. While I got through both sessions.. the result was that I could hardly move and walk for three days straight.
Final bootcamp session on Wednesday was interesting to say the least!
What I learned from this is - no matter how much you love something, how much of an accomplishment it feels like to do more and to feel it in your muscles later.. there is no point over stressing your body. Do what you enjoy but also listen to your body..and when it says no, listen. In saying that - there is a huge difference between actually feeling like you shouldn't do anymore because you could injure yourself vs just can't be bothered.

The closer you are, the harder you have to work

Hi guys :)

Hope everyone is well, and whatever it is you're aspiring towards, that you're keeping on track!

I've hit another plateau unfortunately, I'm stuck at just over 25kg lost. I'm not happy about it...but I'm not too worried. I have been doing a bit of research lately and it seems it's normal that the closer you get to goal, the slower it gets. Thankfully, my measurements are also still going down slowly .. in two months I've lost a total of 8.5cm in a variety of areas.

I'm realising now how quickly your body can get used to and adapt to the same exercises, or certain ways of eating, so I really have to make sure I change up my routine slightly every month or so, and also increase the intensity, and tweak my diet. I wish there was some easy formula! Instead, it's a lot of trial and error!

If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you

Hi everyone!

Just checking in to say I am still here..still getting on with it of course. I'm pretty sure I've hit yet another plateau but I am not freaking out or worrying like last time.
I am reminding myself every day to remain patient and I know that the last few kilos will be the hardest to get rid of...technically they have been there the longest. Around 10 years even, so I can't just expect it to melt off!

In the meantime, I thought I'd give you guys an insight into the types of exercise I do.
A quote I came across very early on in this journey, but one that has stayed with me to this day and I try to remember with every training session is this:

I make every workout I do 'challenging' and give it 100%, otherwise what's the point?

Getting to know the new me

Ever since I can remember, I have always been the "chubby" kid. As a teenager I got told I had thunder thighs.. not what you want to hear at that age. I became the girl that was nice but the fat one..I always felt like I was just the fat friend and that's what I was known for.
In my early 20s I got asked multiple times if I was pregnant or when I was due, even my nieces used to say it to me all the time. You try to laugh that sort of thing off..but in reality, it cuts deep. 

Thinking about those times made me realise that so much of who I am has been defined by me being overweight, my unhealthy relationship with food/dieting and my body. Now that I am well on my way to having the body of my dreams, I am realising that I don't actually really know who I am...and I'm going through a bit of an identity crisis.

Almost there!

Hello and Happy Easter :)

Hope you have all had a nice Easter break.
I've had an amazing last few weeks. I'm well and truly into my new exercise routine and even better is that my weightloss has started again, and I've done a massive wardrobe clearout - got rid of all my big clothes..ended up getting rid of about 3/4 of my wardrobe! Now I just have to go shopping..YAY!

This weekend I reached my next 5kg milestone, and I'm down 25kg in total.
It's pretty much exactly 5 months since I was at my halfway point (read about it here), and now there is only 5kg to go till my 30kg goal!!!

Here is the difference between my face in those 5 months :)

Onwards and downwards

Finally! The scales have started moving downwards again :)
Last week I had the biggest loss I've had in about 8 weeks... 800 grams to be exact. That's the equivalent of a block and a half butter worth of fat.. when I think about it that way, it's a great amount and makes me feel better about those slower weeks as well. Any movement is progress, and that little bit closer to my goal.

Interestingly I found out over the weekend that the last time I was 75kg (my goal weight), was in 2004, exactly 10 years ago. From then on it just crept upward and upward. To think it will have taken me 10 years to come full circle is so strange. I wish someone had told me back then what I was going to have to go through to get back to that point.. silly me. Hindsight is wonderful isn't it? Maybe going through this experience will make me appreciate it more, and help me keep to my new lifestyle because I've worked so hard for it.

In terms of the changes I've made, the biggest apart from the increase in food (which I am enjoying), is adding weights to my exercise routine, and consciously getting 1 or 2 rest days per week. I am trying to listen to my body, I trust it enough to know it will tell me when it's enough or not enough.

Doing weights has been amazing.. I am only doing basic exercises, and I haven't physically noticed much difference so far, but its a great change of pace, while still working hard. It also makes me feel powerful and amazed at what my body is capable of. My fave exercise so far is the leg press..and I can manage 50kgs! Go legs! In general, I just loooove working out. I love that I can get through anything. So awesome.

Recently I've also been going out for some larger walks. Over the weekend we did a 4hr walk which included ups and downs and some slightly more challenging tracks at Rimutaka Forrest Park. It was a great experience and I'm really enjoying getting out there, seeing more of beautiful New Zealand, and doing something a little different.

We will be doing Tongariro Crossing later this year, hopefully in October. The fact that I WANT to do it, is a huge step for me, because the last time I did it was when I was 17, back in high school and it was an awful experience I vowed to never repeat again and just wanted to wipe from my memory. I was unfit, at the back of the slow group, no breaks because I was in the slow group..it was 8hrs of torture basically. I don't even remember the nice things up there!
Now is the time to make new and positive memories, which is why I so badly want to do it again. I can't wait!!

This week I am also getting back into more serious running. I managed 6.5kms at round the bays.. that was 6 weeks ago. Since then I've done some treadmill running at the gym, and sprints, but nothing long distance..and not outside. It should be very interesting, and no doubt I would have lost some of my fitness... but I am really looking forward to building the distance week by week! I want to enter the half marathon run at round the bays next year, and I'm confident I can achieve it.

Hope to have a couple more progress photos in the coming weeks :)

Keep going everyone! Stay positive!
If anyone ever has questions for me about anything ... hit me up! :)