The End!

Actually no... it's just the beginning. I have every intention of continuing with my exercise programme as I'm so happy with the results. I've lost 3 kgs and am visibly more toned and slim. I have a lot more energy and I enjoy my workouts - at least 3 times a week, which I was inconsistent with before this challenge. If anyone else out there wants to jump start their weight loss I definitely recommend doing it this way! By the time you get to 5 weeks you won't want to go back to your old lifestyle. Final weigh in: 57kgs - ok, not 55 which was my goal weight but I'm really happy anyway! I believe I will make 55kgs in the next month.

Day 32 of 35 - Weight loss!

An amazing thing happened this week - I lost another kg! I am now 57.2kgs! The best thing is, I know how it happened - so I can do it again! What's my secret? I broke my diet for a steady 2 days, and ate higher fat foods and a lot more calories. So I believe my metabolism cranked up a gear (came out of fasting mode), and on returning to my strict diet, it continued utilising the calories as if there were plenty to go around - except there wasn't! Effectively, I fooled my metabolism into burning more calories! So yes, this is good news because it means you can eat more calories and a higher fat diet say 1 day a week - so long as you reduce your calories after that, for at least say, a week. I wouldn't recommend doing this for more than a few days however. I have 3 days to go until my 5 week challenge is up. I have almost lost 3kgs. Pretty good I think. I would love to hear from my subscribers, and anyone else who has been following my weightloss crusade:

• have you found inspiration in this blog at all?
• have you been following any of the diet / exercise programmes I've been posting?
• have you lost any weight over the past month? What's your secret?

I am enjoying my smaller butt - if anything this alone has been worth the last month. To be honest, I haven't deprived myself that much, so I think I could make a habit of this diet and exercise programme.

• I feel great
• I look better than I did
• I have heaps of energy
• I can run for longer
• My muscles are more toned
• I weigh less
• I'm happy!

Day 25 of 35: My butt has shrunk!

It really has, it's shrunk. I'm so happy! And I have so much energy. I'm finding it significantly easier to go the gym now - in fact I have become quite grumpy about it and don't like other things getting in the way. I overcome a major hump on Tuesday - I wasn't able to get to the gym in the morning, or at lunchtime, and usually my motivation leaves me after that... I had decided not to go that day, but then I saw a picture of a bikini clad model in a magazine, and there goes my visual cue! I was off - and put all my effort into my workout. I felt SO GOOD for doing that. Now I believe more in myself, and realise that if I look at motivational pictures, it will give me the kick in the pants I need to get there. I have come to realise I will not healthily lose the rest of the weight by the end of next week. And I suspect the reason I can't get past 58.5kgs right now, is because I've gained muscle - and we all know muscle weighs more than fat! Now for some motivational pictures!

   

Day 21/35: Panic stations

I'm STUCK on 58.4kgs and I think it's cause I kinda lost interest last week... so I've sorted out next weeks diet and exercise programme, been to the supermarket, and am very determined this week to lose another kilo. My period is due next week which means it will be difficult to exercise (they're quite painful) so what a great excuse to get heaps of exercise in before it begins. I'm going to start eating breakfast on Monday. I'm definitely lacking in iron, so I'm cutting out the huge coffee in the morning and instead eating a cereal fortified with iron (Special K - yum) with yoghurt - and washing it down with fresh OJ to help my body absorb the iron. So all going to plan... I'll eat 1,000 calories a day, burn 1300 - 1600 calories during the week, and do 2 full body resistance work outs. I feel fitter, look slimmer, can run longer, and I am definitely noticing some toning. It's going to be really hard to lose the final 3.4 kgs - I've only got 2 weeks left! So any suggestions are most welcome! Here I come bikini!

Lacking motivation to keep losing weight? Help is here!

If you're feeling a bit flat about losing weight (as I am today - I haven't posted since mid-week, sorry)! Here are some handy web resources I've come across, and found some inspiration and support in. Online Health & Fitness tools

• Gimme20
• iTrainHarder.com
• My Food Diary.com
• RunFatBoy
• Skinnyr
• SparkPeople
• Traineo

Read a review of these tools Blogs about weight loss

• NetSweat Fitness Blog
• 8 mistakes I made while losing weight

Day Seventeen: Recovery!!!

Today is day 17, out of 35. That means I am halfway there! I will do my measurements tonight as I do feel that I've lost a little more than just weight. I am stuck on 58.5 though!!! Why why why… it looks like I will have to put a LOT of effort in over the next 2.5 weeks to lost 3.5kgs - can it be done? I am tired all the time and I think that could be an iron deficiency. Next week is going to be really difficult as I experience quite painful menstruation and I can't bear to go to the gym with a tummy that feels like lead (resistance training is fine). I'll have to get as much cardio in now before it starts - AND organise some iron supplements - if I'm low now I'll be anaemic next week. I recovered really well from my slump - went and did my cardio workout last night, then my resistance this morning so I am back to feeling really positive about myself. That alone will encourage me to stick to my diet as I don't want to undo all my hard work! Barbara Lee I'd love to see what you put together for your diet this week (poor thing was waiting on me to post mine and I didn't get around to it)! Uh oh - check out this article, have they been reading my blog haha: Christmas diet fads don't work Which reminds me, I do need to find a way to work this into my everyday life, so that the weight doesn't pile back on after Xmas... anyone want to join me in the healthy-for-the-rest-of-your-life challenge?

Day Sixteen: Unprepared, Tired, Grumpy

Not being prepared food-wise has been a major blow. I'm not eating enough fruit, and I am hungry hungry hungry all the time - this is dangerous as it's when I'm hungry that I eat bad food!

I was too tired to get up this morning to do my cardio workout. This seems to be a recurring theme for me, so something that I need to consider when working out next week's schedule. I mean to go this afternoon but I know that I will lose interest bit by bit. How to talk myself into going when all I want to do is go home and relax - I'm so tired!

It just makes me more determined to get sleep on the weekends!

Day Fifteen: Plateau!

I don't seem to have lost any more than the 1.5kgs, and due to lack of planning my diet is a bit scattered and I'm not eating very well! Back into it tomorrow - one fabulous thing is that I've had heaps of comments from friends, so the lost 1.5kgs must have made all the difference! That is very motivating. I am finding it hard to stay on track and I find I must prepare and plan every step of the way or it is very easy to go off track.

Day Twelve: BAD

I managed to believe many excuses that I made myself today. 1) I can't actually remember what the first excuse was, but it enabled me to ignore my gym plans this morning. 2) I had french toast for breakfast. Not on the menu. 3) I had a panini for lunch. Not on the menu either. 4) I had 2 glasses of vino after work with the gals and have a bottle to share with the boyfriend now... with dinner that is not on the menu either! I think I have officially gone off the rails!

Day Eleven: Uh oh, vino!

So I went for a couple of wines with the girls tonight which meant a) loss of apetite then b) loss of inhibition when it comes to food, later! I ended up having satay chicken instead of the grilled chicken and vegetables that i had planned. Major blow - discussing weight with a girlfriend who is taller than me, but lighter than me. Sigh... felt so big and fat! I know I'm being a little silly but I still can't help thinking - I can do better, so much better than this...

Day Ten: Sugar cravings, grumpy

Really grumpy today! Not sure I'll blame that on the diet though. Mad sugar cravings though... had some Turkish delights MMMMM. I did my programme today in 45 minutes (5 minutes treadmill, the resistance exercises, 10 minutes stretches). Not bad - and I really enjoyed the different exercises. Have decided I will do them twice a week and really push myself. FAMISHED when I got home, I cleaned the whole house! Again!!! It works to distract me though, I recommend it!

Day Nine: Bloated, craving sugar...

Another sugar craving day... had some marshmallows... and a handful of other lollies but it wasn't a pig out I swear! I didn't eat my apple which was for the purpose of giving me a sweet hit. Note taken! Saw my new Personal Trainer this morning and he gave me a great programme of 9 exercises that are full body, each of them - I do 4 exercises, in a row, 1 set each, then move onto the next super-large set of 5 exercises, then do it all again. Because of the super-setting I also will get aerobic benefit out of it. Can't wait to do it in the morning. He also gave me the advice that if I was to do both resistance training and cardio in a row, do the resistance first, as it's proven that the body is more effective at burning fat in the period post workout... so it makes sense to capitalise on this and do cardio. I'll write up really soon what that programme is. It's late, and I need to get up earrrrrly to get to the gym!

Day Eight: Sugar cravinnnng!

I did very well today on the diet, but ended up getting into a packet of chewy lollies after work. Before I knew it I had eaten about 20 of them! At no stage do I remember consciously telling myself to stop! So I think I need to be more careful, and think before I eat... I am seeing a personal trainer tomorrow morning, with the aim of setting a programme for the next month that includes full body exercises (i.e. lunges+clean and press, working the whole body not just one muscle group), so that I can fit more into less time, and also gain some cardio exercise at the same time. Clever huh! ;-) Will report back tomorrow. Hello to all my visitors coming through from Traineo, Jenny Craig, and Gimme20. Hope you find something you can gain inspiration from on this blog - it is certainly motivating me the more people drop in for a look (especially if you come back)! If you are really keen to see how I get on, you can subscribe to these posts (if you don't have a news reader that is). You'll get email updates every time I post to the blog (generally once a day). I won't share your email address with anybody :)

Day Seven: So so...

Well, again I find myself needing to be distracted when I have downtime, as I am hungry! So I visited Traineo and invited some people to visit this blog for motivation. Traineo is a place where you can record your health and fitness goals and meet like minded people looking to achieve the same things as you. Very visually appealing site, with lots of great tools. I've listed a heap of other, similar sites on the right. I use SparkPeople - which motivates me daily to enter data about what I have eaten, and what I have done - along with giving you guidance to help you achieve your goals. Very impressed with this site! Here is next week's diet and exercise plan. I've changed it a little as it was obvious I wasn't going to go to the gym in the morning and at lunchtime. Who wants to put on their old workout gear - not me! I also discovered the reason I have been bloated my whole life could be because of wheat!!! So I have cut that down - I love not feeling bloated for once. Everyone else doing ok out there? Any major struggles? Successes? Would love to hear about them!

Day Six: More time = harder!

I found it quite hard to stick to the diet today as I had more time on my hand, being a Saturday! I just had to find ways to distract myself (cleaning, reading) when I had down time. I did haul my ass to the gym though EVEN THOUGH it was amazing weather... many excuses arose but I fought them off. Dinner seemed so small! So I drunk lots of water to fill the empty space!

Day Four: Good and bad…

Bad: Woke up too late to do my exercise today; didn't eat lunch until 5pm = bad concentration ability! Good: Stuck to diet (albeit the timing being a bit out)! I'm feeling positive and can't wait to jump on the scales tonight. I'll start planning next week's diet and exercise on Saturday, so I can shop on Sunday. :)

Day Three: This is hard

Well today was quite hard, as I went to the gym to do my resistance training at lunchtime (instead of the morning because I was out late last night)... and this was bad for 2 reasons: 1. I wasn't particularly motivated to go at lunchtime 2. I didn't have a lot of energy So I'll do my best to go in the morning from now on... I don't want to set myself up to fail. In the afternoon I was HUNGRY. But I staggered the apple, the coffee, and the carrot and drunk 3 big glasses of water which got me through until 5pm. I am home now and have about another 90 minutes until dinner as I want to eat with my boyfriend... but I'm starving!!! But as I'm having the focaccia, egg and tomato tonight (forgot the avocado) I've just eaten half of the focaccia I was planning on having, with a smidgen of cottage cheese. Still hungry but I'm keeping myself busy doing this (!!) and then I am going to go and read... It's the hardest thing maintaining your resolve, as I feel like I constantly have to battle the negative thoughts saying 'it's ok, it won't hurt'... Today I feel tired, and a little weak... but must soldier on!

Day Two: Uh Oh!

Good stuff - Did 40 minutes on treadmill instead of 30 - Stuck to diet during the day Bad stuff - Forgot to bring my lunch - after all that preparation… so I improvised and bought a chicken salad, which was low fat at least - Was invited to an awards ceremony at the last minute, so I had some unplanned wine and cheese I don't feel discouraged though as they were both 'innocent' slip ups and not as a result of laziness or not being motivated. I'll learn from this!

When I get home from work my usual routine is to go straight to the fridge for a munch on cheese! So Day 2 when I got home I thought - how will I distract myself? So I ended up vacuuming, cleaning the floors, toilets, doing the dishes until my boyfriend got home and it was time for us to have dinner! Nicely done - I think the house will be VERY clean and tidy over the next 5 weeks! I also drunk lots of water to keep the tummy grumblings at bay...

Day One

Day one is almost over and I feel really positive about the rest of the week. The only bad thing I did notice, was that I got a headache early this evening - and I think this may have been because of the drastic change in diet. I also didn't drink as much water as I usually do. I also come across my first obstacle. After carefully planning my diet for the week, I was invited to lunch with a family member that was very unhappy, so I didn't want to turn it down - so I chose a quiche and salad which was low fat (with greens)! The grilled chicken with Greek seasoning is really yummy! To make it I cut the chicken breast in half, and brushed a little bit of olive oil on each side, then sprinkled with seasoning - then grilled till golden on each side. I had this with steamed broccoli and carrots. I didn't have any exercise scheduled for today as I was out 2 nights on the weekend and thought I would be feeling seedy. As it happened I was up at 6, feeling quite sprightly! I must have been excited about something ;-). It's a good feeling to have started this programme!

Are you ready to go?

A great thing happened today - a reader decided to follow in my footsteps and create their own 5 weeks blog! This is so motivating for me, and I am so happy that my blog has inspired them to do this. Welcome to this challenge Barbara Lee! So I am all prepared to begin tomorrow - I've eaten some crappy food this weekend, just cause I could, and cause I know I can't for a while! I have eaten a lot of cheese this week :( The shopping is done, the gym clothes are ready, and the sunbed has been booked. You'd be surprised how much a little bit of a tan can do for your self image. Fake is better though! I'm really excited about starting this tomorrow and making some progress! :)