To exercise.. or not?

Trying to make a decision as to whether or not to push through feeling sick and training, or resting and taking the time to recover. Well its been an interesting couple of weeks... training has definitely been hit and miss... and one of the major reasons has been due to fighting off illness... unfortunately this week, the illness won... 

Monday morning, despite a mild fever and the beginnings of a bad cough, I chose to train. I dragged myself up at 5am and went to Body Attack/CXWorks, managed to get through the whole hour and didnt feel too bad apart from sweating bucket loads.  However, the coughing got steadily worse as the day went on, making it much more difficult to talk and operate in my classroom.  I made the decision to stay home the next day and pay a visit to one of my not so favourite place, THE DOCTORS.... guess what... she told me I was sick.. :)  Put me off school for 2 days and told me to rest... a 'get out of jail free' pass right?  I was good that day, didnt train... what I did do is organise for the delivery of my own Cross Trainer, (a decision made after the disastrous lack of training caused by the storms the week before).  EXCITING!!!

The next day, another day off work, still coughing heaps, no sleep now for a number of nights, but the new Cross Trainer has arrived... can I resist the temptation?  The answer is no... I cant. Under the pretext of 'showing' my sons how to use it, on I hop and off I go... The fact is, despite being officially sick, I did manage to train, yes I sweated heaps, yes I was a little more wobbly at the end than I would have been usually, and yes I did have a coughing fit just after I stopped, but I survived it, AND in lots of ways, felt so much better than I had been. 

Since then I have picked up my training schedule as usual, and worked at undoing the lack of training in Week 2... And I have come away with the knowledge that my body is much stronger than I ever thought it was.  I am sure that there will be times when some illnesses WILL stop me from training, when the best thing to do for my body is to rest, but that does not mean that every time I get a sniffle,
headache or cough, I have an excuse to skive off... which is what I would have done in the past...

New directions....

No, its not a Glee Club... but it is a whole new adventure for me and one that I could never have envisaged even 12 months ago...

This week I made some fairly major decisions...

The first was to make the decision to work towards moving back to the country, putting in my transfer and starting the process. With all the little rootlets I have up here, including my amazing support crew, family, friends and my routines, it hasn't been as easy a decision as I thought it would be, but its been made and the winds of change are now blowing. My gorgeous man is excited and already looking forwards to the next stage of our lives living where we always wanted to, with space, trees and fresh air around us. Finally building our dream home, and building a place that our current (and future, God willing) grandchildren will want to come and visit on a regular basis....

The second major decision was based also on future directions, on looking forward to just how I am going to sustain the changes I have been making in my habits and health. How am I going to stop myself becoming very much a statistic and putting all the weight back on PLUS as is so often the case?  Well the conclusion I came to after much thought and discussion with those who know me and care about me, was to make it as big a part of my life as I could, and what better way than to become a Personal Trainer myself. 


Yes.. as I said, NEVER something I could have imagined myself even contemplating doing not so long ago.. but I am cautiously excited about it now.. going from Couch Potato to someone who actively works with others to help them improve the quality of their lives through healthy living and fitness. WOW... How different my life is turning out to be... at 44 years of age I am embarking on a whole new direction, combating the fears and doubts that have held me back, I may fall flat on my face, but I KNOW I have the strength to get back up again, I KNOW I have amazing people around me that have faith in me, and I KNOW that I will NEVER go back to that sad, sad person I was before, hiding behind layers of fat and fear, holding the world and even those close to me at arms length... LIFE IS GOOD!

Changes...

While in the car yesterday evening, after a very full day... I started thinking about how some things have changed in my life in ways I really didnt expect them too.  The primary one being how my body has changed with regards to exercise.

Wednesday I was at home all day with my unwell son, I didnt get out, and didnt get any exercise done.  I picked at food all day and overate to a small degree, but generally felt like crap... even though I got extra sleep and 'rested' most of the day.

Me jogging for Michelle's TV Promo

Yesterday was a completely different story, I was up early at 5am and off to do my pump class, I upped all my weights and really worked hard right through the session, then home to get ready to go to work. After work it was home to get ready to head out to Boxing, then a good kick arse session of boxing before home again... was I tired... yep, but a different type of tired.. it was an earned tired, I felt good.  My body felt good, (under the tired and sore muscles etc) and it felt grateful too, that I had given it an opportunity to move and work.  Because I was exercising, my food was better, another thing my body was grateful for. 

I am not a natural exerciser, but as I have traveled along this path, I have learned to listen better to my body and note what it is saying to me.  As much as sometimes I battle with that lazy little demon that lives inside my head, the voice of, as Emazon put it so beautifully, my 'Inner Goddess' is becoming much louder and clearer each day.  She is appreciating the improved strength and fitness, enjoying the lack of liver pain, the clearer skin,  the extra energy.  I know what I am doing in my life right now is the best thing I can do for myself.  Its not just about outward appearances, its about inward stuff too... that quiet, satisfied and content feeling that I now have when I reach the end of my day and I know that everything I have done has been to the benefit of my health and well being.

Looking Forward...

Here we are at the start of round 2... measurements done, fitness test done, pre-season tasks completed. The goal line is now in site, with only about 16kg to go until I reach the goal weight I set for myself. But now is when I really need to get tough... now, when I am so close to something that has been such a long time coming, is when I really need to dig deep, and put some strong strategies in place to enable success.

 One of the things I did is to remember where I had come from, and put it out there on my favourite Facebook page, a photo of me close to my top weight, unhappy... unwell.. and looking goddamned awful... It doesnt even look remotely like the person I am now. What a sad individual that was. From then until now I have lost 52.8kg!  By the time I finish this first part of my life long journey, I will have lost close to 70kg.  A whole person. 

I need to keep this person I came from in mind, remember what it was like to be her in comparison to the person I am today.  Remember what it was like to look in the mirror each day, to carry around that weight which excluded my from so many things. Remember how I felt when I was told I was 'beautiful' by my amazing husband, and how hard it was to believe it. Its not so hard anymore... I am starting to believe it myself now...

But I am no only looking back to what I came from, I am also very much looking forward, looking forward to watching the changes that I am hoping and working towards making on my body and both how it looks AND how it works.  To pushing it as hard as I can and continuing to test its boundaries.  I am looking forward to working with my personal trainer Jody to target the areas I really want to work on.  I am looking forward to continuing to work with my amazing exercise buddy Sue and watching her continue to grow and change too.  I am looking forward to supporting and being supported by my amazing Naughty Forties Crew!  I am looking forward to making the changes I have started, permanent parts of my life, a life filled with good food, exercise, activity and a deep sense of self worth.

What an amazing journey this is!

Did I Push Too Hard....?

Wow, what a day yesterday...!
After taking it pretty easy during my week away in Melbourne (I did walk alot, did Mish's workout on Saturday, dance my tootsies off on Saturday night and make it to the hotel gym once), decided in my glorious wisdom to hit it hard yesterday to kick start my next phase.

My normal schedule for a Thursday is a pump class in the morning and then maybe a boxercise class in the evening.  Well I did both of those things, AND a Personal Training session with my trainer Jodie.  By the time I walked in the door last night after the boxing, I felt like I had been run over by a freight train several times.

My training session with Jodie started out with her deciding that I needed to strengthen the muscles supporting my knees, so out to the back stairs we go and she gives me the wonderful task of walking up and down the stairs carting behind me a great big, heavy shipping rope... Then its outside to play ball, with a 2kg medicine ball being thrown against a wall, caught and then squats.... After a number of other torturous activities, we head inside to the gym floor and the bench press. "How much have you pressed before?" she asks. "Oh only about 10kg in pump" I reply... "Lets try you on 20kg then"  GULP... So there starts a series of bench presses with a 20kg bar and a series of other 'muscle building' activities, to help 'speed up my metabolism' she says... Maybe I should just have stopped at the personal training and Pump and given Boxercise a miss... but no, I had made the commitment to myself to do all three and I am now a 'woman of my word'... lol.. even if it kills me!

Needless to say, for the first time in ages, I have a serious case of DOMs and knowing myself as I do, know that tomorrow is going to be even worse... BUT, did I push TOO hard?  A difficult question to answer... yes I am really sore, yes I am going to be even sorer tomorrow.... but the fact is that I did it.  A few months ago I would never of dreamed of being able to do 3 sessions like that in one day, in fact just getting through ONE of those sessions would have been difficult.  The fact that I was even able to get through them is a major milestone for me, an indication of just how far I have come in my journey, and this journey is all about pushing myself and testing my boundaries and limitations, which is exactly what I did yesterday!

One Round down... Round Two here I come!

Well I am a pretty slack Blogger... had major plans to record my journey from Round 1 of the Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Transformation program here, and barely touched it!  But the question is, was the round a successful one for me?  And the answer to that question is DEFINITELY!

I started the journey weighing in at 114.9kg, and by the time the round one finale rolled round, I was down to 89.4kg... in my 80s for the first time in 24 years!

Next question, was it an easy journey?  Yes and no would have to be the answer to that question... Yes because I was able to stick to it in a way I have never been able to stick to anything ever before, and no in that I really had to push the boundaries of what I have made my body do and there were days when there was not a single inch of me that didnt hurt!

Was it worth it?  ABSOLUTELY!  I can now do things I never dreamed I could ever do... including being able to run/jog for short stretches and developing a real passion for boxing.  I am so much smaller than my husband, which I am loving.  My fitness, my strength, my stamina are all so much better than they were, I am now officially much fitter than my husband.. ha ha....

So where to from here?  Well there is still a long way to go... although I feel like I have my foot on the throat of the monkey that has been on my back all my life, he is still squirming around looking for an opportunity to climb back on board, so I feel like I still (and probably always will) need to maintain constant vigilance. 

I have joined round 2 of the program, and have begun to set new goals and map out the next leg of my journey.  Obviously there is still weight to be lost, so that is a primary goal, but there are others now too.. toning and strengthening... working on my running... continuing to work on my nutrition and food.  Although I have become much, much more controlled with what I put into my mouth, there are still areas that need to be worked on.  I still have days where all I seem to do is eat, however, because my house is a junk free zone, I can only shovel in low cal stuff, so the damage is much less. Because I am much more aware of what I am actually putting into my mouth and how that equates to exercise, I am also much less inclined to eat junk food and take away and always tend to head for the low cal option rather than the usual 'high fat' ones.  But again, I still need to aim for more consistency in food preparation and organisation, especially in the area of lunches and breakfasts. 

My long term aim is to be able to feel confident about having the band removed... and knowing I can maintain the good habits I am forming and cementing through this program... fingers crossed that I am able to come to that sooner rather than later!

The picture I have added to this blog is one that was taken at the Finale of round one... wearing a dress I would never have dreamed of wearing a few months ago... and I felt great!  I cant wait now to see what I will look like come the end of this round, weighing even less, more toned and 'tight'.... Look out world, here I come!

Exercise...

I have to say, exercise has never, ever been something I have looked at or participated in with any fondness.  At best I have seen it as a necessary evil, something to drag my sorry arse through in order to attain some ephemeral reward... with the exception of Indoor Beach Volleyball, which I actually found I enjoyed. 
Since starting the 12WBT, from the last day of the old year, I have been striving to make exercise an integral part of my everyday routine. Despite being on holidays, I have gotten up early and headed off to the gym or the pool and completed my 30-60 minutes of exercise 6 days per week.  I even participated in the SUPER SATURDAY SESSION yesterday for the first time, doing not one hour of exercise, but two!  And then came home and kept on moving so that I wouldn't stiffen up or just veg out for the rest of the day (kinda defeats the purpose then). SO overall I have been somewhat chuffed with myself in this regard!

Today was to be an official rest day, however as a family we had planned a long awaited trip to Rottnest, my first... I, feeling oh so confident in my newly acquired fitness focus... decided we would take bikes and ride around Rottnest... mmmmm..... There is definitely a difference riding a bike in the air conditioned gym, one that is attached to the floor, compared to a wobbly, unco person like me huffing and puffing around Rottnest in the noonday sun trying to keep up with hubby and two teenage sons...
The best thing I can say about the day is that, although there were several times they had to wait for me to catch up (as I walked the bloody bike up the hills.. who knew Rottnest had hills?)... I still did all the riding they did and didn't pike out and just let them go on without me... despite being offered the opportunity to find a shady tree and do just that after I jarred my back jumping down some small outcroppings onto a beach... Despite, pain... heat... exhaustion (did I mention the complete lack of sleep the night before?) and a complete lack of balance and coordination.... I bicycled around (some) Rottnest!