Half way through #12wbtmayround

So many stories and posts to write!

For now though I just wanted to drop in for a quick update.  Haha not sure just how quick it

It's been a while between elevator selfies lol

will be - but we will see!

As of tonight, we're exactly half way through the May round!  Obviously my journey lies before and after a set round, too.  But the rounds keep me accountable and on track by helping me strive for consistency and reaching goals.

I'm still going well!  I'm just feeling so on track and just doing my thing and trying every day.

I'm a few days behind in my stickers so I can't share my 'scores' for this week, but I think it'll be pretty good.  At a guess I think I'll be:

Nutrition: 6/7
Training: 7/7
Sleep: 3/7
Water: 5/7

??  Lets see how accurate my guesses are in my next post.  I was determined to up the water this week, as I have no excuse not to reach my measly 3L daily goal.  The days I don't hit it aren't shortfalled by too much - I'm usually at 2.5L or so.  All I have to do is to make a little

Boot camp / Fight Club

more effort to get my 3 in.

Training wise I didn't have any days off by being lazy, which gives me my 7/7.  I did have maybe 1.5 days off due to injury but the other days I burnt so many calories that I think they would have covered the injury days! 

Food I was perfect all week, but last night I was a little liberal in my snacking, and I really can't say I was on track. So no sticker for yesterday!  It was easy again having all my meals prepped and ready to go - that process is still working wonders.  I haven't prepped Week 7's meals yet, I have a weird work week this week so will do it in a couple of days.  I have enough meals to see me through till then.  

Kitchen in the car

I had a few moments where I was extremely strict (and strong) this week.  Work morning teas, kids birthday party, people walking up to my desk holding brownies, catered morning tea and lunch at volunteer work I do, multiple meals out...  At one point a colleague wanted to me to share a jam drop biscuit (you know those yummy coconut ones from the Woolies bakery?)  I SO would have loved one, but I just decided it wasn't worth it.  I'm being so strict.  I hadn't said anything about the biscuits, she just decided I should share it with her.  I said no a few times, but she continued, picked it up, broke it into two, and handed me "my half", telling me I had to share it with her.  Those moments are hard: when someone's physically holding food up in front of you.  I did tell her why I was being so strict but some people don't really understand.

I got through it though, didn't eat the jam drop and my friend was ok..... ;)

Found!

And sleep - well that's a constant battle, but I faired ok, I think.  I really have to get a little more dedicated with that one...  One thing at a time.

Also, I found my Garmin!  I was so excited...it worked for a couple of days but has now gone back to registering the wrong heart rate.  I need to get it fixed as my failing HRM's are driving me totally insane!

My #12wbthydrate goal was ok: I can say that I gave it a good go, but it's just not for me.  (My

No excuses

goal was to drink one herbal tea a day).  I had a big fail on Wednesday with it that shows how unused to drinking hot drinks I am.  I went to fill up my mug, put it down for 30 seconds to do something, and was so off with the fairies and not used to holding hot drinks, that I picked my mug up, forgetting that I'd just filled it from the boiling water tap.  I picked it up as if it were empty, the boiling water spilled and I burnt my hand.  Doh!

I'm the First Aid Officer and I'd "first aided" two burnt hands the week before, so I was well practised with what to do!  It's fine - but yeah that was a bit of a fail.  I tried. :)

Herbal tea fail

Inspired by the success of my own mini milestone of walking home last week, I tested a new way of commuting, too, that will see me have more "incidentally planned" exercise - and it went well!  I explained my plan on my Instagram, so I won't repeat it here - but I'm really excited by it.  As I said, I may be being slightly ambitious, but I think I can make it work.  (I explain what it is in this post.)

I have so much to talk about re: running, but I'll leave that for another post.  Just quickly though, I did City 2 South today and it was just so special.  More to come!

That's about it in regards to a quick overview of my week!  I still have to chat about my mini milestones I've been doing, too.  I'll be back soon with more.  I just wanted to say hello and drop in....

717 cals at boot camp on Thursday night!

I've lost a little over 9kg this round so far: and I just want to keep it up and keep moving forward.  Picking myself up to get moving again has been one incredibly hard thing to do...and I'm really proud of myself with where I am at the moment.

So many more stories to come!!
Love Kate xo

P.S. It appears that I can write (fairly) short posts!  Go me! :)

Concentration :)

Pushing past unplanned avocado toast

Hello!

Just touching base as we start Week 6 already! Crazy stuff.

So how were the last few days...

Weigh in

As expected, I didn't lose anything on Wednesday's weigh in.  I didn't gain either, which was good!  I was mostly ok about it because I knew that the non-shift on the scales wasn't through lack of trying: I had been trying and hadn't strayed.  So I knew it was just one of those weeks in between where my body's adjusting, or one of any number of things.  In saying that, I still did get a bit deflated on Wednesday.  I'm human!  I was having a bad day anyway and it was easy just to add a 'zero kg weigh in' to the days woes.

But importantly I haven't used it as an excuse to go and eat a Twix bar or packet of Tasty Cheese CC's.  Which inevitably is usually the start of my undoing.  Instead I've just kept
going.  I'd lost weight when I checked yesterday so I'm hoping it will stay that way (or continue) before weigh in this Wednesday!

On track

I finally made the 12WBT Cheeseburger!

I'm still on track.  I actually think this is the longest time that I have been 'on track' for in my weight loss entire life.  I ALWAYS fall down, constantly.  I stray, I binge, I stop training, I eat one lolly which turns into a 'going to town binge fest', I fail, all the time.  But I haven't fallen in 6-ish weeks (the whole round plus some pre-season).  As I've shared, as at last week there'd been just one day where I didn't hit my food goal, and one day where I couldn't be bothered to exercise.  

I've had days where I've been over my usual calories - for sure!  But each time were my planned 'calorie free' days / meals and I had planned and factored them in.  And I've had a few more rest days in addition to my 1 per week, but they've been due to injury.  But days where I *should* have been on track, well there's been one of each.

This week continued on a similar streak.  This week's sticker chart shows me:

Boot camp on Wednesday

Nutrition: 7/7 (am proud)
Training: 6/7 (will speak about this)
Sleep: 4/7 (my best sleep score yet!)
Water: 2/7 (my worst water score yet!  Gotta pick up my game!)

Pain

The downfall in my training was a bit annoying.  Again, it was Sunday (yesterday).  I'm really starting to see how much I struggle with exercising on Sundays.

Boot camp on Friday

Anyway, on Friday and Saturday, I was in agony with pain (O pain).  It wasn't bad enough that I was totally bedridden, I still got out, worked and did things, but it was bad.  It got worse as time went on; I was doing my cook-up and could barely stand up.  It was so bad I booked in to see a doctor.  I've had this pain for years, I don't resort to doctors for it.  But this pain was absurd.  I ended up just having to lie down for the rest of the day to help it.

I could only complete half of my training on Saturday because of it, which I was ok with.  I started thinking I wouldn't be able to train on Sunday either, and started I guess mentally preparing to not exercise the next day.

But it turned out my pain had gone by Sunday, so I could have exercised....but I was so mentally prepared not to, that I...............didn't.  One part of me says it's ok because I really needed to give my body that break.  But if I'm honest with myself, I could have still at least gone for a walk.  So I didn't get my sticker!

I'm really finding it hard with this pain factor: when I mentally prepare to probably not exercise because of pain the day before, I find it hard to then turn around and do it, if I'm ok by then.

Boot camp today

I did boot camp this morning and planned on getting to my calories burnt target with a hill walk after.  I started the hill walk but had to finish about 25min in as my knee started hurting a bit.  I just don't want to risk damaging it further so I stopped.  It's feeling ok now, so depending, I may get out there again later.  (It's a public holiday today!)

Meal prep

I was pretty impressed with my meal planning and grocery 'list' this week: I did it while

I love when my groceries look like this

driving!  Now before I start getting hate mail about driver distraction, I don't mean I sat there and wrote it down, I just thought about it.  

I was driving (to the doctor that I just mentioned actually) and remembered there's a Coles next to the doctors surgery.  I had 30min. to wait for my appointment, and I thought to myself how cool it would be if I could just get my shopping done in that time.  So, I started thinking about what I wanted for meals this week, and planned it in my head while I was on my way there.

This may sound boring, but I decided to have the same meal for breakfasts, the same meal for lunches, and the same for dinners.  I chose my favourite meals at the moment, so I knew

For the first time ever, I cheated! Do others buy it pre-chopped?

I'd be excited to have it each day.  It made my shopping 'list' very simple, and I got the groceries done in that 30min.!  

The actual meal prep took a little longer, but it too wasn't complicated.  I was particularly proud of this weeks efforts. :)

Carrots!

Carrots or sweet potato or pumpkin?  Who can tell?

Just on the food topic, I've started roasting veges once a week to use in salads and to have with dinners.  I drown them in spices and they're so yummy.  I usually cut them into chips and I'm used to using sweet potato.  What I've started doing is doing the same thing to pumpkin and carrots.  Thanks to the spices I use, I can't always tell the difference between each vege when I'm eating them with a meal.  Which is very handy, so I've now started limiting my sweet potato portion and increasing my carrots!  There's nothing wrong with sweet potato of course, and I don't cut out food groups, but they are still carbs, and when I'm having so much of it, I was looking for an alternative.  The carrots are working wonders.  It's like disguising carrots in the form of chips!

Weekly challenges

The weekly challenge last week was #12wbthydrate.  As I mentioned on my Instagram, replacing all soft drinks etc. with water is not something I'm ready for at this stage (I have a long standing addiction to Diet Coke) so I personalised the challenge instead.  Each day I had to replace just ONE Diet Coke with a herbal tea.

Tea...for one day at least

Monday went so well.  I took one of the many pretty teas out of my pantry and took it to work.  I made a chamomile and mint tea in my special princess Kate mug, and even Instagrammed the occasion. So impressive.

It's now next Monday and I haven't done it since.

:o

Meal Prep Central

So I'm pushing the challenge to this week.  I'm determined to do this at least once a day!

Mini milestones

These are totally on track and have associated stories with them!  (Of course).  In the interests of blog post lengths, I'll leave those stories for my next post.

Avocado toast

Ah, this bloody avocado toast.  If anything was to be my undoing this week, this was almost it.

There's a place near my work that sells this incredible toast.  It's vienna (?) bread topped with avocado, labneh and dukkah.  It's so yummy.

On Thursday I brought something to work for lunch that I ended up not feeling like eating.  Around that time, I remembered that I wasn't going to be home till about 11pm that night, and I hadn't accounted for that in my meal planning.  My dinner needed to be heated in the oven and microwave and everything was at home.

I started getting tempted by the avocado toast.  I reasoned that if I ditched my non-exciting lunch and got the avocado toast instead, then calories wise, that could do me for both lunch and dinner, and I could just have a muesli bar later.  I let myself think this was a great idea, bought the toast, and enjoyed every single mouthful.

But my mindset after....that wasn't good.  I felt like I'd 'stuffed up' and had 'wrecked everything'.  I know how ridiculous that is.  I guess it was possibly the only meal in over 5 weeks that I hadn't pre-planned in advance, and it just threw me a bit at a time when I'm being super organised with my planning.  It wasn't a big deal, really.  It wasn't exactly binge material and I

See what I mean??

included the approx. calories.  But I still found it hard to deal with after....

I've had that "one thing stuffs everything up" mindset for 18 years now- and while I'm a lot better at it, I do still struggle.  This side of things is definitely still a work in progress for me.

I spoke to a friend that night and she reassured me it was fine...which of course it was....and i pushed past and carried on as per normal.  I'll keep trying to work on this.

Anyway ....I'll be back soon to update about my mini milestones.

Love and light,
C.Girl xo

Walk today

Grapes snack yesterday

My freezer

Week 6 meal prep

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