Focusing on habits

I was going to start this post by saying "just a quick update" ... but I seem unable to do 'quick' updates ever, so just know that that is the intention as I start this...and we'll see how we go. :)

So, Week 5 already!  Crazy how quickly it's flying.

Battle ropes on Friday

How are things tracking....pretty well.

Weigh in Wednesday is tomorrow so I'll have a new weight check then, but going by my unofficial-pretty-much-daily weigh ins, I don't think I've lost anything this week.  I love how daily weigh ins help me - I know for some people they do their heads in and aren't healthy, but for me it helps me so much, as I know how I'm tracking.  Without them, Wednesday weigh ins would be total surprises, and on the not so good weeks, I think it would send me spinning.

This way, for example in this week, I know that the scales haven't shifted, so tomorrow will be no shock or disappointment.  I'm expecting it.

Maybe my body will surprise me overnight, but for now I'm not that confident.  I'll check in either way on Instagram in the morning :)

For the first time this round, last week I didn't earn my nutrition or my exercise 7/7 sticker.  WHAT?  I know right, how terrible!

Nah it wasn't for bad reasons, I just simply didn't hit my mark.

So last week was:

Boot camp on Friday

Nutrition: 6/7
Training: 6/7
Sleep:  2/7
Water: 4/7

Pretty standard for me!

The slip in nutrition was thanks to a night with friends on Thursday that I didn't control as planned.  We had planned to have Thai for dinner, and I knew this in advance, so incorporated it into my meal plan.

When Thursday rolled around, we had the Thai, all was well.  Then one friend wanted wine, and the other wanted dessert. I was hosting them post dinner, so I went out and bought wine and dessert for them.  I didn't need to indulge myself, but in the moment I thought it would be nice to join them.  I had half a bottle of wine and a smaller-than-them piece of Viennetta ice cream cake...

We had a good night and I enjoyed it all.

Inside my freezer: ready for Week 5!

At the time I told myself that it was fine, I still hit my nutrition mark for the day, because I had allocated calories for dinner (450).

Hmmm.  I then was honest with myself and realised that 450 calories would not have covered the Thai, half a bottle of wine and the ice cream... so yes, I didn't give myself a sticker.

The non exercise day (Sunday) was less complicated: I just didn't feel like exercising!  On Saturday as I explained in my last post, I had a half rest day to look after my knee.  I wondered at the time whether I'd be ok to exercise on Sunday - so that's where the idea started to develop...  It turns out I was ok to exercise on Sunday - but by then I already had it in my head that I may not be....

As a once off I just wanted to have all of my time to get other stuff done.  For me exercise should be a priority, something I make myself do, and I usually do.  But I just wanted more hours in my day for a change.

The injury thing was already making me consider not exercising, so it ended up being an easy decision to make, and I made a conscious decision not to exercise.

I got one of my rewards last weigh in!  I earned a new nailpolish :)

I was a bit nervous about 'wine night' and 'no exercise day', as I don't want to start slipping back into old habits.  I'm an all or nothing person still...so anything like this is a little risky to me.

But I'm trying really hard to be strong and not think twice about it.  It's only Tuesday lol, but I feel fine and moved on straight away from both Thursday and Sunday, and am just continuing as normal.  This past 5 weeks has been all about re-establishing good habits to get back and stay on course.  One of these habits is to just "keep going" and not let bad days stuff everything up.  So I'm really glad I'm going ok and didn't let 2 very minor things affect me, like I often in the past would allow.

One awesome thing from this week is that I 100% completed pre-season!  It was just that pesky "Organise and Diarise" task that I had left over - the rest I did weeks ago.  I was determined to do each task including this one I always put off, and I finally got it done.  It's silly because I really adore that task!  I'm just very bad at it!

Crumbing fish

I had a delay as 2 weeks ago I dropped and smashed my iPhone...and thanks to that I've had a lot of software and hardware things to sort out before I could fix up my calendar.  But it's all done now and I feel so good about it!

My mini milestones are on track, too!  Man it's been so long since I've actually made consistent effort to get things achieved.

I did Week 1's organising goal back as the round started, so that's ticked off.

Week 2 was Girl in Blue and I've actually started it!  I've been meaning to blog about that; I will soon.  But seriously I can't believe I've finally started it, as I've been saying I'd do this for over a year.... This is an ongoing goal so I can't tick it off just yet, but I'm working on it weekly, and that's part of the goal.  Watch this space.

And eating fish!  Yum!

Week 3 was to start water running while I'm injured.  Who decided to do this at the start of Winter??  I'll get this done, but I realised today that it's not too practical.  My local pool complex has a heated pool but even that closes over Winter (from this weekend).  I could use my parents pool but it's really going to be too cold.  I rang a place today that is an actual place with treadmills in the pools (amazing!) but there was issues with that too.  I'm sure there's other heated pools around but I just realised that for me, right now, and in this season, it's just not something I want to do.  I will do one session as I set it as a goal, but yeah....it won't be a weekly occurance just yet.  I've put it in my diary to go to the pool after work on Friday.

Week 4 was to go to a new parkrun, I did that!

Week 5 is to walk home from work: and that's in my diary to do tomorrow! 

Making cheeseburger patties

So so far I'm on track: in Week 5 I've ticked 2 off, am in the process of 1, and have 2 in the calendar for this week.

I've been keeping on top of entering everything in MyFitnessPal and My Tracker, religiously, and am also on top of watching Mish videos.  Speaking of which, the video I watched tonight has been my favourite ever, by far.  If you're doing Move/Move 2, it's the one where Mish speaks to Cathy, Kirsty and Michelle.  It's not even that they're all great friends of mine, it's just that this interview is incredibly inspiring and relateable.  We need more videos like this.

Operation Polka Dot Dress is going well!  This is my latest photo:

It's fitting so much quicker than I imagined.  I'm starting to daydream about what I'll do when it fits nicely enough to wear in public. :)  When I got into my yellow dress, I wore it out and about (it happened to be the day we had a 12WBT admin meeting so that was pretty special).  And the day I got into my blue work dress, I wore it to.....work!  As that was the goal.

Fish and cheeseburgers! :)  (I made extra patties)

With the polka dot dress though, what I imagine is something to do with curling my hair and bright red lipstick, and maybe getting someone to take my photo in it.  Like a photoshoot but just while I happen to be out and about.  I'll have to work something special out. :)

My Week 5 cook-up / prep was minimal as I did most of it in Week 4's cook-up.  All I had to do was to make my dinners and snacks.  My plan was to keep it minimalistic and exciting: because I hate cooking and I want to stay on track.  So I chose two 12WBT meals to rotate for the dinners: the fish and chips, and the cheeseburger recipes.  Hahaha!  They suit me perfectly, I am such a kid when it comes to food.  And I don't need to explain why when you're losing weight, having meals like 'fish and chips' and 'cheeseburger' to look forward to for dinner are pretty helpful!

So on Sunday I went to the shops and got the ingredients (plus snacks), and got into a bit of fish crumbing and burger pattie making!

So far this week I've had the fish twice and it is SO yummy.  I love it!

Before and 'current'

This is my latest "before and after" (before and current).  I've started being able to tell my body's getting smaller and I've started having some compliments too.  But most importantly, I can see my confidence starting to grow.  After over a year of being stagnant and counter productive in my weight loss journey, it's nice to be changing things around and being back to finish what I set out to do.  Longest journey ever right here.  Coz I won't give up.

My back's been playing up this week.  I had to work standing up again today for a little bit because it hurt to sit. :(

Sore back selfies

One more week till I can attempt running....I'm a little apprehensive about it, just in the sense that I want it to go well!  Just hoping it works out and that it's not going to be another 4 months off.  Apart from running itself as a sport, what I actually miss just as much is just having bigger calorie burns from being able to run for exercise!  I miss having bigger cal burns at boot camp etc. as I can't run in between sets like my boot camp mates do.  I miss that glistening eyed, exhausted run feeling, and I can't remember the last time I was totally sweaty from exercise.  I miss intense cardio so much.  Fingers crossed next week sees me turn all that back around.

That's about all my news...nothing exciting here!  I'm just focusing on trying to re-establish and keep on top of habits to keep me going.

Happy Weigh in Wednesday for anyone who's weighing tomorrow.

And see what I mean?  I can't write quick updates!

Love Kate xo