Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Weigh-in Wednesday!

Yesterday I had a killer day. I started the day by walking the dog, then had a few classes, then hit the gym - ran 5k in 30min, then cycled 5k in 10min, then ran another 2.5k in 15min. I was absolutely stuffed after that (burnt 901cal with dog walk & gym). Had a veggie burger for lunch, it was filling & quite satisfying, then afternoon classes. After uni I studied for a bit, then listened to a boring talk for an hour, then had a practice exam session. Finally got home about 9:30pm, luckily I had everything ready to go to make Mish's corn fritters and they really hit the mark, they were delicious and cos I made a double batch I had enough for 4 more meals. I was completely exhausted when I got to bed, but also a little strung out from not stopping all day, so I had to take a sleeping tablet. After that I was out like a light! Allowed myself a sleep in til 8:30am which was really needed and felt very luxurious to snuggle under the covers for just a little longer!

Today, of course, is weigh-in Wednesday, and it was with some trepidation that I stepped on the scales first thing this morning. 900g lost! Hooray! I have been really going hard at the gym but have still struggled to avoid temptation food-wise. So far I've lost 2.2kg in 2.5 weeks so I'm pretty happy with that. And, you know what, this afternoon one of the girls at uni asked me if I'd lost weight! Hooray! No one's asked me that since after I had jaw surgery last year, haha! Anyway, I said no, but secretly I was very pleased. Onwards and upwards from here I say! Although, there was free lunch at uni today - 2 sausages in white bread & tomato sauce, and a small glass of pepsi (oh, and a very thin slice of strawberry cheesecake made for someone's birthday, ARGHH!)....hmmm....and I'm heading out to Indian for tea. But, I've only been out to tea twice in the 6 months I've lived down here (and brunch once), and no takeaway (besides occasional free pizza at uni once or twice) so I'm okay with this.

Oh yeah, and according to my scales, my fat % is down 0.3%, TBW up .2% (still need to work on this), muscle up .1%, BMI down 0.3, and total recc cal/day down by 36. So everything's moving in the right direction except I really need to focus on improving my hydration.

**Update: It's 10:15pm, I'm lying in bed with a bit of a bellyache...headed out to tea earlier, to an Indian place recommended by friends & with good reviews on urbanspoon & tripadvisor. We decided on the banquet and the food was nice (but a bit sweet??) but before I got to dessert my tummy was in trouble and I had to dash to the loo (sorry if that's TMI!) - I think this confirms I either have some kind of food intolerance or had a rapid food toxicity! Anyway, I have no idea how many cal were in the meal, probably approaching 1000 I'd say, and now all I have is a belly-ache to show for it...that'll teach me!!! :P

Monday, July 29, 2013

Another day, another blog post

So, another week begins.
Friday I headed back to my parents place in Melbourne and as usual couldn't avoid my habitual binge once there. By the time the evening was out I'd eaten 80g of Mars Bar slice, 25g of thins potato chips, and 2 hash browns *sigh*. At least I'd managed to run 4.39k and cycle 8.11k at the gym to make up for a little of it.

Saturday I had work & then caught up with a friend (vanilla slice...), was absolutely stuffed when I got home but forced myself to jump around for an hour and managed to burn 557cal (discovering its much much harder to get my heart rate high when I don't have a treadmill to run on!). My dogs thought it was hilarious all the crazy moves I was doing, luckily no one else was home at the time so I didn't embarrass myself! Went out in the evening for dinner and bowling and managed to restrain myself food wise.
Sunday I was really looking forward to as it was my chance to meet up with some other 12wbters finally. I was very disappointed that of the 12 people who had signed up (& hadn't pulled out), only 2 others besides me showed up. Still, it was nice to meet the 2 ladies I did meet, and have a chat about how we were going. The 1000 steps themselves definitely got my heart rate up (max 192!) even though I only walked up them, but overall it wasn't much of a workout as the whole thing only took 40 min, and walking down, though hard on the knees, wasn't much of a workout.

When I got home I took the dogs out for a walk to try and burn a few more cal.
Harry
Again faltered diet-wise when my sister came over with freshly baked scones (I restrained myself to 1.5 scones with jam but no cream), also had 40g more of Mum's mars bar slice & 4 licorice allsorts...Hmm. Always knew I'd struggle with the food side of things. Made Mish's chicken, pumpkin & celery hoisin stirfry for tea which wasn't bad, then drove back down to Gippsland.

Today I hit the gym a bit earlier than usual, and after a 3min warm-up started to see how fast I could run while still keeping my heart rate below 190. 9km/hr seemed to be about the do-able speed, so I ran 4k doing that, told myself I'd just do 5 as my right knee was starting to hurt as usual, then somehow with my FitRadio app playing and a bit of willpower, I managed to run for 65min straight and a total of 10km! All at 9km/hr besides the first 3min walking warm-up! I was pretty stoked as I'd never run that far before.
Pity I had yet another blow out day with food- 1.5 slices of chocolate peanut butter brownie, 1 choc chip cookie, and 1.5 slices of lemon loaf cake. Oh deary me. Still, I burnt 1000cal today so hopefully I will still have some sort of loss on Wednesday, though I am not confident that will be the case. I'm definitely loving the FitRadio app, it's great not having to stop all the time and change songs on my phone which I was having to do beforehand. Made Mish's roast pumpkin & lentil veggie burgers for tea, they were quite tasty and very filling but did not stick together at all which was somewhat annoying I must say.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

My commitment is...

Today Mish set us our next task.
My commitment is:
-To lose at least 7kg (to get to my pre-Europe weight) and ideally 10kg by the time round 3 2013 is over. I will try and lose 1kg per week. So far I've lost 1.3kg so I'm on track.
-To look good in a bikini by the time I go to Fiji (2 weeks after round 3 finishes). I haven't felt comfortable in a bikini in a while and last year bought my first one-piece. I still feel a little young for that!
-To fit comfortably back into my old dresses
-To fit comfortably back into my pre-Europe jeans
-To work on my self-esteem and body image so that I can attract the kind of person I deserve
-To do my best to run 10km non-stop by the end of round 3 (knee/feet issues dependent)

-To improve my self confidence so I don't feel like the ugly duckling when I'm out with my gorgeous friends
-To buy myself new running shoes when I hit the <60kg mark (my shoes were obtained second-hand in 2007 and I'm sure aren't helping my knee & foot pain and blisters!!!)
I do this with my ultimate priority in life in mind (in the words of another 12wbter Annalouise): I want to love myself and for someone to love me.
I am committed to doing the work that it takes to get there. This includes continuing to exercise daily, sticking as closely as possible to 1200cal or less daily, and having no more than one 'treat' item per day. I will not drink alcohol, and I will do my very best to limit my binge eating at social events and when visiting my family in Melbourne.

Today I walked 6km before uni, burning 397cal. I had the thai larb again for lunch, and for dinner made Mish's beef and oyster sauce stir-fry. Delicious!


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Weigh-in Wednesday!

So I've been trying to be really good with both food and exercise this week and so far I am doing well.
Yesterday I walked 8.13km on the treadmill and burnt 642cal.

Today I walked 10.01km and burnt 750cal (done continuously, but you can only program the treadmill for a maximum of 70min :P). I am doing my very best to stay in the heart rate zones this week, but I couldn't help but let it rip with a couple of super fast kms at the end of the first hour and then at the end of the following 20min. I definitely find the endorphins are much better in the higher heart rate zones!

Also, I get rather bored of walking so slowly for such a long time. Especially since I have not been able to work out how to dial my iPhone into the gym radio stations so I can watch TV. I would've loved to watch the news about Will & Kate's baby boy or watched the 80s movie that was on. I have the tuneinradio app but that doesn't seem to be able to do it. Any tips?
One negative is that I have got terrible blisters on my feet. My left foot is particularly sore and I am having to burst bubble blisters on my little toe daily! Ouch! I think I will have to leave a permanent bandaid on them or something. Apparently fixomil (a bandage available from the chemist) & Vaseline is a good cure, & I happen to have both of these at my parents place in Melbourne, so I will have to retrieve them this weekend when I head back for work. I am really looking forward to meeting some 12wbters when 14 of us get together to do the 1000 steps in the Dandenongs on Sunday!
Another interesting thing that happened yesterday is that we had a workshop on lung function testing. I was very keen to find out how my lungs were shaping up and was pleased to find out they are working at least as well as, if not better than average!

Nutrition wise I have so far been sticking to my 1200cal well, since borrowing Mish's cookbooks from the library and finding a few of her recipes online. Last night I made her rainbow fried rice and found it quite tasty (though still not as good as the thai chicken larb, which I will be making again tonight).

Today was weigh-in Wednesday, so I eagerly (though nervously) hopped on the scales this morning. 1.3kg down in about 10 days! Yay for me. I also got readings of my fat percentage (25.6%) total body water (55.4%), muscle percentage (35.6%), bone weight (2kg), BMI (23.8), and recommended daily caloric intake (2346cal - haha!). I don't know how accurate all these values are, but I did find them interesting, and all were normal except my total body water, which shows I'm moderately dehydrated. This does not surprise me in the slightest as I never drink enough water and have had a few headaches recently with all the exercise I've been doing. Drinking peppermint or cranberry herbal teas in place of a sweet snack, as I have been doing, will hopefully help a bit with this.
I'd love you to leave me a comment if you've read my blog. Although it's mainly kept as a personal record for me, I would be interested to know if anyone else finds reading it enjoyable! :)

Monday, July 22, 2013

When life gives you bananas....

Well, after a horror weekend, it was time to start the week afresh today and totally SMASH IT. Which I did! And I'm so proud of myself.
The day started with the 2hr drive back to uni from my parent's place, so it was quite an early start (fueled by a banana). We finished morning classes half an hour early so I took the opportunity to do an hour's walk in my lunch break and managed 6.05km and burned 495cal.

To give you an idea of the kind of area my uni is located in, while I was walking along the highway, I had a banana peel thrown at me by a P-plater driving along in his car. And it very nearly hit me too! What a loser. Wish I'd taken his numberplate, if I had I would have reported him to the EPA, would have been just perfect if he'd got a fine for littering ;). Sadly I was too surprised by what had just happened to process things quickly enough.
 Had 4 corn/rice thins & 30g tasty cheese for lunch (am still soooo full from yesterday!!!). Afternoon classes were rather dull so I left a little early when my computer battery died and headed to the gym.
This week my aim is to follow my Polar HRM and train for the recommended amount of time in each zone. So, I decided I would aim for 30min in zone 2 (HR<155) and 30min in zone 1 (HR<133). Ended up doing 6.53km and burning 520cal. Go me! I didn't raise much of a sweat and at times really wanted to break out into a run, but I am determined to keep things slow and steady this week.

Got home and made Mish's thai chicken larb again for tea (301cal). It's so delicious! All my housemates were very jealous of the delicious smells coming from the kitchen :)

p.s Ate about 2600cal yesterday...pavlova, sausage rolls, spinach dip, scone, pizza muffins at bookclub, I was very full after that & normally wouldn't have eaten anything else that day but sis invited me & parents over for dinner party = delicious roast lamb & apple/rhubarb crumble...eekkkkk!!!

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Berlei sale

Walked the usual route near my parent's place today, 5.7km, did it with my Dad and burnt 390cal so was reasonably happy with that. I have bookclub later, a monthly event that is more about the food & gossip than the book, so it will be interesting to see how I go with that. Not having any breakfast or lunch as there's normally heaps of delicious home-cooked goodies on offer.
Mainly posting because I found out from the 12wbt forums that Berlei is having a 30% sale on all their sports bras which finishes tomorrow! And if you pre-register, you get an extra 10% off, so I managed to get two of their Electrify Underwires for ~$50 delivered! Happy with that given I usually pay $20 for the fairly crappy ones I get from Target. I don't usually wear an underwire sports bra but they were the cheapest ones so I'll give them a go then let you know how they are :)

Hello world!

Hi everyone!
My very first 12wbt blog post :)
I wasn't sure if I wanted to do a blog, but I feel like there's a lot I want to say, and limited people to say it to, since the only person that knows I'm doing 12wbt is my little sis, and I think even she's forgotten it!
So here I am.
Why am I here?
Well, I'm 28 years old, and I'm tired of being overweight (well, technically my BMI isn't in the overweight range, but to look at me you'd surely agree I'm overweight). Specifically, I'm tired of being judged for being overweight, and having so many people judge me AS A PERSON for being overweight. I'm also sick of the snide comments, most recently from my weedy stick thin male housemate regarding my 'flab', & a classmate at uni (after I'd finished a gruelling 3-month exercise program called p90x, I posted of my achievement on facebook, only to have him comment, 'next step: shake the weight'). They hurt. I have poor self esteem and I know my extra weight isn't helping things. I would love to have a partner and family one day and I know I need to work on my self confidence to achieve this.
I went to Europe at the end of last year for several months and put on SEVEN KILOGRAMS (!) during that time. Ideally I'd love to lose that and a little bit more.
I ummed & ahhed about signing up but eventually decided to because:
a) I'd tried intensive exercise programs in the past, had been very committed to them (1-1.5hrs every day), and still hadn't lost any weight. I now understand weight loss is 80% nutrition and only 20% exercise!
b) My cousin was recently married after having a baby last year, and had lost all her baby weight very successfully by following 12wbt. Boy she looked fantastic on her wedding day!

So, I signed up ($199). I also purchased a few things. A set of digital scales (rubbish, very inaccurate), a gym membership ($153), a Polar FT60 heart rate monitor ($78), and borrowed some of Mish's cookbooks from the library. I already had MyFitnessPal app downloaded on my iPhone which I would use to track my calories in and out.

One of our first challenges was to think about all our excuses we've used either in the past, or presently. My excuses centre around the fact that I don't believe I can ever be thin, that I love food too much, that I have no willpower when it comes to food, and that no one will love me regardless of how I look. Some of these may seem irrational and I'm sure they stem from my poor self-esteem and my emotional association with food. I know I need to work on my mind as much as my body over the coming months.
Our next challenge was to set some goals. Ideally I would love to fit into my pre-Europe jeans, look good in my bikini during my trip to Fiji (booked for 2 weeks after this round ends!), and, long-term, incorporate an hour's exercise into my every day routine (so that, missing my daily session would feel as odd and uncomfortable as missing brushing my teeth!).

I started my exercise on Fri July 12, the day I signed up to the gym. I had missed all of the warm-up challenges except for the last one, which was to exercise 10-30km. Phew! I thought. I only have 3 days to do this! So I better get going! I had never really used a treadmill before so it took a little while and a bit of stop-starting before I figured out how to work it, but that first day I did 5km on the treadmill, 5.17km on the bike, and went home and walked my dog for 1.44km = 11.61km! I was well on my way! I had my university ball that evening so decided that would be my last alcohol night til my trip to Fiji at the end of November. I've never been much of a drinker anyway so that wasn't going to be a big challenge for me.

Saturday, July 13
Woke up feeling very tired and a little bit sick. Decided to start calorie counting as of today. Breakfast was a revelation to begin with. 630cal oh my goodness! I had been really enjoying my breakfasts, which were consisting of a tub of Chobani greek yoghurt, a tiny amount of Zymil milk, and about 100g of a Woolworths toasted muesli. From that day onwards I halved the amount I was eating at breakfast and surprisingly felt just as full during the day. Lunch was out, a baked potato covered in loads of stuff, and I wasn't hungry and didn't enjoy it. Afterwards, despite still feeling a bit seedy, I hit the gym. This time I timed myself:
-5.09km on the treadmill in 32min (12min at 10k/hr, 3min at 6.5k/hr, 17min at 10k/hr)
-5.59k on the bike in 8min30
-1.5k with the dog
So, since the previous day, I had managed 23.79km! I was pretty proud of that. Didn't have dinner as I was still full from lunch and still feeling a bit sick.



Sunday, July 14
Finished my goal of 30km+ in 3 days with a grand total of 15.19k on the treadmill, 16.15k on the bike, and 2.94k with the dog = 34.28km! Worked out for 51min today with an average heart rate of 177, having borrowed my friend's heart-rate monitor. Feeling pretty proud and motivated to keep going.
Food today consisted of bikkies with cheese & quince paste, goulash with pasta, and 2 scones with jam & cream. Eek! I know this is where I need to improve the most.

Monday, July 15
Worked out for 47min with an average HR of 181. My max is 195 (that I've seen) so this is 93% of my max. I'm starting to wonder if this is dangerous, and post on the forums to see what the staff say. I'm also wondering if it's a bad idea given my 'fat burn' zone, as the HRM's & machines seem to put it, is 88-127. Whattt? According to the forum staff, I should aim to burn as many calories as possible, as although I may burn more 'fat' calories while my HR is in this zone, I will burn more overall calories (the ultimate aim), if I keep my HR higher. Interesting. Tonight I go out to dinner & obviously far exceed my 1200cal allowance. It is not helped by the fact that I come home and eat a piece of home-made chocolate ripple cake for my housemate's birthday - MyFitnessPal says one piece has 428cal!!! Is this even possible? Yikes.

Tuesday, July 16
My butt is sore from being on the spin bike so I decide to try and smash it on the treadmill and skip the bike for today. Yay for me! Still really struggling to get anywhere close to the 1200cal daily allowance. Tonight I make Mish's thai green curry for tea. Really not a fan unfortunately, far too heavy on the eggplant, and nowhere near enough liquid. Besides the eggplant, the other veggies taste okay. Other food today is another piece of cake (see previous), beef goulash for lunch, a banana, and peanut butter sourdough toast for breakfast.
Wednesday, July 17
Today I had half the usual amount of muesli/yoghurt breakfast and was still quite satisfied, so I was very happy with that. For lunch had a banana & the other half of Mish's thai green curry, and for dinner - at uni, provided after talks, so I knew it would be bad - I had a glass of coke & 2 slices of veggie pizza. Considering I can usually eat 4, this was a good effort for me (although I don't usually have the Coke...). Managed to eat just under 1400cal today and burnt at least 500 through exercise so was pretty happy with today's efforts overall. 
Thursday, July 18
Thought I would have time to get to the gym today but between having to attend placement at a hospital a 3hr return trip away, and having to go to the doc, I ran out of time. Pretty disappointed, I only managed to walk the dog for 20min. But, in happier news, my Polar FT60 heart rate monitor arrived! I am SUPER happy with it. I got it brand new for $78 inc postage from ebay, and it retails for $229, so I was super lucky. I spent the evening happily programming it and dying for tomorrow morning to arrive so I could give it a test run! I also used the watch to roughly work out my VO2max - 42, which is apparently good for my age. Let's see if I can get it to very good (45-49) and then elite (>49)!
This evening, made Mish's chicken & broccolini laksa for tea. I liked it more than I did the thai green curry, but probably not enough to make it again. Enjoyed using coconut flavoured evaporated milk which I hadn't used before, rather than coconut cream, and didn't find it changed the flavour much at all! Also had my usual (now half-sized) muesli/yoghurt breakfast, a green apple, a banana, beef goulash, and a small home-made blueberry muffin today. Getting closer to being around 1200cal/day but not quite there yet (though I am always under given I've been doing ~500cal/day in exercise).

Friday, July 19
My first day with my new HRM! I was mega excited and raring to go! Managed 6.06km in just under 50min and burnt 536cal! Exciting stuff! Tried a new breakfast today: Sunrice's thick rice cakes x 2, with 30g of devondale tasty cheese & 4 x mini roma tomatoes = 208cal. Delicious, nutritious, and filling! Perfect! Had left over laksa for lunch. Visiting my parents this weekend, had a bit of a binge when I got there (need to learn to curb this!!!) - 2 pieces of home-made chewy chocolate slice of unknown calories, 3 x licorice allsorts (153cal) & 50g Thins originals chips (254cal). I didn't even enjoy the chips so was a bit annoyed at myself. For tea, I made Mish's thai chicken larb and I LOVED IT! Finally, a meal I would make again! Mum really enjoyed it too so that was good. And only 301cal per serve, super quick! Plus I had most of the ingredients already. Mum suggested we go out for dessert, but I declined. So, despite some slip ups, I feel proud for saying no as many times as I have this week. I said no to tim tams every day, no to multiple muffins, apple slices, and now to dessert. Go me! And, I have been to the gym every day since I signed up, except yesterday when I would have if I hadn't completely run out of time (sadly, that's going to be repeated every Thursday fortnight, unless I get up at 4:30am, which is a bit ridiculous I think).
Also, my digital scales had arrived! So I stepped on to discover, to my shock, that I had somehow managed to gain 1.5kg. WHAT????! So, I stepped on again. Somehow I had lost 2.3kg. So I stepped on 10 more times in a row, standing in the same position each time. The remainder of the measurements varied by 1.7kg. I'm sure this is not normal! It's certainly not at all useful for tracking my weight loss :( I might fork out some $ for the more expensive ones (Weight Watchers perhaps). I'm not sure. Pretty annoyed about this though. 

Saturday, July 20 - today!
Today I knew would be testing, as my friend had invited me to a Victorian Racing Club's Young Member's Event. Eek, lots of temptation with the included food. I really wanted to sleep in but ended up setting my alarm an hour earlier (and ending up getting up even earlier than that in the end) to go on an hour's walk before getting ready. Before I tell you about the rest of my day, I want to tell you what I've been learning about heart rate zones. I've had a lot of differing opinions, from 12wbt forum staff, from people at uni (qualified physios etc), from dr google (ha!). Here's what I've learnt. 
1) Yes, ultimately to lose weight, the more calories you burn, the more weight you should lose
BUT...
2) In the 'fat burning zone' (60-70% of your max HR), up to 85% of your calories come from fat.
In the aerobic/endurance zone (70-80% max HR), up to 50% of your calories come from fat
In the high intensity zone (80-90% max HR), only 15% of your calories come from fat
In the maximum effort zone (90-100% max HR), very few of your calories come from fat
Oh no! So, given during my workouts my average HR was 177-185bpm (up to 93% max), barely any of those calories were burnt from fat! So today I decided to take it easy. Burnt 370cal in just under an hour, at my zone 1 heart rate (according to my HRM). And, given it was zone 1, nearly all of those would have come from fat! Ultimately, I'm still confused about what I should be doing. But since both the machines and my HRM are telling me to keep my HR low-ish for max fat burning, I'm going to try that for the next week. In fact, my HRM gives me weekly goals of exercising in each of the 3 zones for a certain length of time. I'm going to give it a go!
So, I headed to the races. There was a 'Royal Ascot' theme so the foods were aiming for English. There were party pies, party cottage pies, party veggie pasties, bangers & mash, bubble & squeak, arancini balls...notice anything about this list? CARBS, CARBS, CARBS! I ate 4 of the aforementioned list items, had 1/2 an egg sandwich, and 1/2 a cucumber sandwich. For dessert I ate 6 strawberries with a couple of teaspoons of cream. Wasn't very happy with the food, yet the bonus was I don't think I would have exceeded my cal allowance too excessively given I hadn't had breakfast. For dinner we headed into the city and I had 14 small pan-fried veggie dumplings, then headed home and ate 1/2 a piece of chocolate slice and a licorice allsort. Given I thought today would be a COMPLETE blow out, I think I did okay. And I only drank water as I'd promised myself, despite the fact the cocktails looked AMAZING!
I'm going to go for another big walk tomorrow morning. 

I'm sorry for the EPIC blog post but I wanted to start my story from scratch. I'll try and post every day if I remain motivated, and if people seem to want to read it :). If you're enjoying reading, please leave me a quick comment below!

p.s. I have somehow become a senior member on 12wbt. Must be to do with how many posts I've made, haha. Also, I have organised an event, 1000 steps for 8 days time, and already 9 people are going! Hooray! :)