Tabata is not a type of bread

Photo courtesy 12WBT - Me at finale

Haha!  One of the gorgeous girls at boot camp on Sunday whispered to me that our training (Tabata) sounded like a type of bread.  I laughed so much!  She was joking, but I loved the expression and hope she doesn't mind me using this. :)  I'll be honest though, this title has absolutely nothing to do with this actual blog post.  I tried to do a tricky segway and it failed, so I deleted it.  I just liked this quote so wanted to use it.  Just run with it... :)

This is actually just a mish mash of stuff and a quick update to check in with how I'm tracking.  Also the 12WBT professional photos are out so I thought I'd include some of them here, as well as my Inspiration Board I made.

All is going ok!

My friend found this along a path we were walking along on Sunday :)

Nutrition is going really well- ever since I planned my meals and did the shopping and the cook-up, I have been ok.  Yes, I have wanted other stuff, but I have been strong and not squashed these thoughts, as they are real - instead I have simply asked myself, "what do I want more?"  My new mantra: "caterpillars are fricken awesome, but I love butterflies more." :) 

On a brief side note, speaking of butterflies, I have been seeing SO many!  At the finale workout I saw about 5 - at a very significant moment.  Then back in Brisbane, I was driving down one street and no exaggeration, I saw about 40.  Yes, 40, all separate and spaced out, down a particular street.  And I saw a few yesterday.  I've always smiled when I've seen butterflies...actually I went through a phase as a teenager where I twirled if I saw one...maybe I should start doing that again :)  Anyway - I smile more now when I see them...just wanted to share this with you. :)

Photo courtesy 12WBT - Us 30+ers in "Apples for Mish"

Training could be better...I have done 3 boot camps this week but to be honest that is it.  I've been letting the moon boot be an excuse.  I'm doing the 10km running program this round and I can't run in the boot so I haven't done Week 1's program :(  It's driving me more nuts than I even let on here.  I was supposed to wear it for 1-2 weeks.  It's been 2 weeks now but it's still painful (my leg, not even my ankle).  So I'll wear it for another week and may go back to the doctor or a physio if it doesn't improve within a few days.  I need to still elevate and ice it - that doesn't seem normal to have to do 3 weeks after the incident, does it?  (I got the boot 1 week after it happened).  I did my "Excuses" pre-season task and wrote this down.  My solution was, that I can still burn calories doing upper body stuff.  I prove this at boot camp.  So I have to JFDI and do upper body stuff.  And let go of the running for a short while.  Even though that's making me cry on the inside.

Photo courtesy 12WBT - me arriving at finale

My weekly goals are going well, I have done Week 1 and Week 10's goals!  (See previous post).  Although I've added a new one for Week 10, a challenge from my trainer. :)  I've done all of my pre-season tasks, got myself organised and have a (mostly) clear direction of where I want to go.  Goals are in place, inspiration surrounds and the calendar is up to date for the first time in 7 months (!).  Now, I just have to JFDI.

I realised that I need to keep on top of my mini goals that I made to keep me on track (copied here):

Daily - Stick to nutrition plan

Daily - Stick to training plan

Daily - Track all food

Daily - Track all exercise

Daily - Drink 4L water a day
Weekly - Enter weekly challenge

Weekly - Publish photo in yellow dress

Weekly - Do a cook up

Weekly - Go through nutrition plan / plan meals / shop

Weekly - Read blogs

Monthly - Reassess goals

Photo courtesy 12WBT - 30+ers with Mish at finale

It's taking me a few days to get into the habit of keeping on top of these things, particularly the water.  Turns out I wasn't drinking as much as I thought - and 4L is a lot! :)  It's ok, this is all a learning process for the greater plan - ie. the rest of my life.  We plan, we attempt, we fail, we learn, we grow, we conquer.  It's all about learning how to better ourselves.  These are my mini-mini-goals - but they're goals all the same and I need to track them and make sure I do them too. The yellow dress pictures for Week 1 have been painstakingly taken and are on my Yellow Dress page:

Operation Yellow Dress

So all ok and ready to tackle Week 2 with things actually organised.  Setting myself up last week was really important.  Better to take a week to do that rather than be on the back foot.

Soooo I'll chat to you later!  Hope you're all tracking well, over 1 week down, less than 11 to go! :)

xo 

Photo courtesy 12WBT - QLD crew with Mish at finale...Can you spot me? ;)

The lovely Jules found this for me :)  This is what we have to do :) x

My inspiration board for Round 4

 

My first push-up

Yesterday :)

Awww.  The title of this post reminds me of some teenage diary entries I wrote: "My first bra" .... "My first kiss" etc. .... Haha yes I have some very juicy diaries sitting in my storage boxes.  The earlier teenage years ones make for light entertainment reading every now and again.  Well this entry may not have the same life changing pubescent impact as other 'firsts' that I've documented, but it's still pretty cool.  There comes a time in some girls lives where they do their first...

PUSH-UP ON THEIR TOES!!!!

I couldn't get very low for the squat holds (me in blue on the right)

That's what I did yesterday! Totally unexpected- as you may have read, this was my Goal for Week 10 of this round. To date I've only been able to do 'girl push-ups' - on my toes. I've been perfecting these as best I can. The other day I did 789 push-ups to catch up on a push-up challenge I'm doing! But these are all on my knees.

Yesterday I went to a group workout run by the QLD Crew. It was our unofficial end of round workout- a big, free event run by my trainer Ange, PT Janette and Margie from The Biggest Loser. At the start we were doing a big get to know you type exercise. One person at a time ran around the circle we made, and we had to do squat holds until it was our turn to run. I tried to squat hold but my moon boot was making it difficult to stay in that position effectively, so I did plank holds instead.

I'm still frustrated in the boot >:

Our group finished first, and while we waited for the other groups, we were told to do a plank hold. I got down on the ground and thought to myself I had just done an epic effort of plank holds, and wanted to try something different. So out of nowhere, I decided to try a push-up on my toes. I knew this was a Week 10 thing and it's only Week 1- I don't even know what made me try it. I've tried it on and off before but haven't had the strength to hold myself up and lower myself down and up again. Being not very fit, but also having to hold up 141kg of body weight on your hands, makes them hard to do. Well 21kg lighter and a bit more fitness seemed to do the trick.

I DID ONE!

A big group turned up to the workout.  QLD Crew rocks!

Just like that! And then I did another, and another. I galloped out of the circle straight away to tell a friend, my grin was very wide! I did another one for the camera too, all for Coco Butter ;) They're not the best push-ups, I don't have the strength to get right to the ground, but I'll keep working on that. I can only do a few at once, I tried a few at boot camp this morning and they went well but then my strength gives way so I just revert to knee push-ups.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my exciting news :) Week 10 goal, TICK! :)

This photo cracks me up.  Getting changed (discreetly!) in the park to go to the theatre after.

Getting my shit together

36 meals ready to go.  Takeaway at it's finest :)

Yes, I am.

I know what I need to do.  Why then do I find it so difficult to be consistent?  Wednesday for example.  Our first weekly weigh in for Round 4.  I lost 4.4kg!  Really, really happy with that.  Yet that night my mindset went a bit haywire and I was teasing myself with thoughts of self sabotage AKA comfort food.

#icompletelyfrustratemyself

I was driving home, thinking these thoughts, and I noticed the letters on the number plate of the car in front of me.  "MSH"  I'm not even joking.  Seriously, Mish!  How does she do that??  However weird that was, it worked!  The 'MSH car' was in front of me for such a big distance and I kept staring at it and counteracting my thoughts with better ones.  I got home and didn't eat any crap.  I don't want to and I don't plan on doing that.  To be honest the next day wasn't crash hot but I've been thinking a lot about the quote (see picture) that a couple of friends found for me the other day.

In essence, the question is:

"How much do I want this?"

A lot.

It's so damn hard though!  Caterpillars are easy.  Caterpillars are familiar.  Caterpillars are safe.  Caterpillars can eat pizza with a chocolate chaser.  You know what I mean.  They are good.  But I want to be a butterfly more.

So this week I've been trying to set myself up for a successful round.  I know that one of the two biggest reasons I failed last time was due to poor planning.  So I'm trying to change things, improve on my planning and do everything I can think of to help me succeed.  Essentially trying to start this round how I intend to finish it.  Some are my ideas, some are borrowed from friends and strangers, but each one is really simple and worth trying.

So here's what I've been doing:

My inspiration and goal wall

• Working on my goals.  You gotta have a plan!  I didn't work on my goals last round.  Here's a link to what I have planned: Aiming for the moon: The Plan

• Working on my pre-season tasks.  I am still working on these.  They are  the magical, essential ingredient to success.

• I made an inspiration wall (finally).  I've been 'meaning to' do this.  It's in my home gym and I'll add to it. It's just different things to inspire me.  I love it :)

Little bright reminders around my apartment

• I've written my weight loss goal for the next week onto bright cards and stuck it up around my house. I'll update these each week.  They're on the fridge, in my gym, on the back of my front door, in my bedroom etc.  I know weekly goal weights are not the best thing to aim for but this is more about keeping me focussed.  I truly don't have my heart and soul set on this number - it's just an aim - and wherever my body falls each Wednesday will be as a result of the work I did and my body that day.  This number and the little cards are just regular visual reminders of what I am working towards, very short term.

Breaking it down

• I've made a couple of countdowns.  One is a "how many kg's do I have left to lose" countdown - I modelled this off a quite infamous design by McGee Inc.  The other one is a 10kg lost goal countdown.

• I bought some cheapie water bottles to keep me on track with my water intake.  Thanks Leanne ;)  There will be an upcoming post about this.  I have to drink about 4L a day.  I thought I drank this already but I don't measure it and I have a feeling I'm not as good as I thought.

Drink before 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 6pm, 8pm & 10pm

• I'm starting to take multivitamins.  I haven't been able to all year due to my medication but now I am able to again.  I've been 'able to' since August yet haven't taken one to date.  So I am setting myself a reminder to take this daily.  Not an essential thing, but every little thing helps.

• I've finally got myself organised with printing out my nutrition and exercise plans for easy access when I'm cooking/training.

Some goal clothes on the back of my gym door

• I did a big cook up to stock my freezer full of 12WBT meals to start off with, and I plan on doing a cook up each week.  (Although I may skip next week as I have no room left in my freezer!)

• I still have to subscribe to and start following as many blogs as I can.  Weight loss blogs inspire me, but I haven't had the time to follow any.  I feel awful as people are so nice to me with mine and I don't get to give them the same respect by reading theirs.  It's just a matter of me being organised - so I will set this up so that I can follow some of these awesome blogs.  I 'meant to' do this in Round 3 but didn't organise myself to make this happen, and it didn't happen.  Funny that. :)

Surrounding myself with inspiration

• As well as the blogs, next up is to update my diary/calendar and also redo my training plan and stick it up.  And I have my star stickers ready.  You are never too old for star stickers.

So that is what I have been focussed on this week.  I'm just trying to set myself up to be consistent and organised.  I love being organised but have failed at this lately.

The black one shoulder dress, a Week 12 goal

If you have any other ideas please let me know - every little thing helps.

This is simple stuff but it hasn't been an easy process, for a few reasons.

But I chose to GET UP.  So I am.

Lotsa love, Coco xoxo

Weight loss countdown

Butterflies everywhere

I have this hanging up in my hallway

Reminders in the form of butterflies...

Multivitamins, finally.

:)

Transformation in progress ;)

Fruit and veges!

I have never bought so many mushrooms before

Exercise and nutrition plans

Aiming for the moon: The Plan

Hey :)

So here are my goals that I said I was working on.  I love making my Week 4, 8 and 12 milestones each round so I decided that from now on, I would have a milestone target for each week!  Most of the challenges I have set for myself are things I planned to achieve anyway - this is just a way of making the goals a little more structured and keeping me focussed.

• Each of these things will challenge me in a different way
• This is not a comprehensive list :)
• I will add to this, this is just listing at least one thing per week
• I've copied these goals under the Coco's Goals page above and will keep them updated on there

I've been working on my goals for next year too and will add these in time.  One of them is of course my goal of my first half marathon in July 2013.  And I also decided that I am going to enter the 12WBT fitness challenge at the end of Round 3, 2013!  That is a massive aim - it's going to be fun getting there!

I also listed a few generalistic goals for myself for this round, to help keep me on track.  Things like recording my food.  I usually do but I often go off track and when that goes off track...so do I.

And I've listed my program game plan for the next few rounds of 12WBT.  Again, I may change this but it's good to have something to aim for now so I know which general direction I'm going in.

I haven't worked out my mini goals for each one yet (ie how to make each of these things happen) - that will be the fun part!

And of course, I will keep you up to date with how these track.  (As if I wouldn't!) ;)

I would welcome any feedback as well.  I am pretty head strong and once I've made a decision there is usually no budging, so I'm just warning you there ;)  But I genuinely would appreciate any feedback or suggestions at the same time.

Here are my goals for Round 4! :) 

Love, Coco Cubano xoxo

Weekly Milestones:

Week 1 - Complete all pre-season tasks & get myself organised

This is vital for my success.  I didn't do this properly in my last round and it affected me.  So this week there are no big challenges, just simply getting myself organised and into a routine, making plans and nailing my pre-season tasks.

 

Week 2 - Go back to kickboxing

I love kickboxing.  Yet don't do it!  One of my earlier round mini milestones was to go back to kickboxing.  I did it!  The once.  I want to do this regularly - not just a once off "I went one night so it counts" type thing - so this is on my list.

 

Week 3 - Climb Kokoda twice in a row

I can do it once now - let's try for twice in a row!

Week 4 - Start dancing

Like kickboxing, I have been 'meaning to' get back to dancing all year.  It was a 2012 goal.  It's almost December - time to make this happen!

Week 5 - Tom's Law Challenge

This is a training thing for an obstacle course event.  I have wanted to do Warrior Dash and Stampede etc. - time, organisation and injury constraints saw me not doing any of them yet, however there is also a fear holding me back.  So, again, time to conquer this one!

Week 6 - Reduce Diet Coke to 3 per week

Hmmm this is a huge one.  I need a whole blog post on my Diet Coke habit so will save discussing the ins and outs of this for another time.  But I'm putting it on here...if it's on my blog, it will happen!

Week 7 - Run 7km non stop

This is in preparation for my half marathon.  I just counted back and made some mini goals along the way.  I can run 5km non stop (very slowly) - so I am aiming for 7 in Week 7.  If I can run 5km, I can run 7km!

Week 8 - Complete 11km Resolution Run

Hahaa and then I can run 11km the following week! ;)  Nah - this goal is simply to complete 11km.  I know I won't be able to run it all non stop but I intend to give it my best shot - run, walk, run, walk, I just intend to complete it. :)

Week 9 - Be under 100kg

Enough said.  I keep my weight goals fairly quiet but this is a big one so I decided to share and add it to my 'official 12 week milestone list' ;)

Week 10 - Be able to do a push up on my toes

This is a cool goal that I'm looking forward to achieving!  I can only do push ups on my knees.  I would love to do a push up(s) on my toes like the cool kids one day.  So, I will!  Working towards Week 10.

  - See the fireflies / glow worms in the Gold Coast Hinterland
 This walk will be dedicated to Ms Wallace and Ms Primmer ;)

Week 11 - 32km walk

I turn 32 this week.  So celebrating with a 32km walk.  Why not?

Week 12 - Complete 40-58km Sunshine Coast Hinterland walk

Princesses can bushwalk.  This week I will prove it - with no dashes to hospital.

 

- Wear black 1 shoulder dress

This is just another random dress that I have, I love, it doesn't fit, and I want to wear it.  It's not necessarily my finale dress, but I want to be able to wear it by Week 12.

 

- Wear yellow dress at finale weekend 

This is a big deal for me, this yellow dress :)  Check out my new page I made for it where I will keep myself on track for the next 12 weeks to make sure it happens this time:

Operation Yellow Dress 

                                      

                                                                  

Other goals to keep me on track:

Daily - Track all food

This is really important but I am not consistent with it.  I want to be really strict with this.

Daily - Track all exercise

Same as above - it's probably not as important as tracking food, but I want to be consistent - this is just something I like to keep track of.

Daily - Drink 4L water a day

Like the Diet Coke thing, I will talk more about this on a later post. :)  But in short, I need to be drinking 4L of water a day.  I always thought I did but I am actually not sure.  So, I will make sure!

Weekly - Enter weekly challenge

I love the 12WBT weekly challenges.  I enter each one that I can: it keeps me on my toes, creative and makes the weight loss process more fun.  But there are some that I don't enter because I don't think I'm good enough, or I run out of time.  I meant to enter each one last round, yet didn't.  So this round I plan to change this.

Weekly - Publish photo in yellow dress

As above, this is to keep me on track to wear The Yellow Dress in Week 12. :)

Weekly - Do a cook up

This has been so handy when I have done this but I don't do it enough.  So I aim to do a cook up each week so that I always have 12WBT meals on hand.

Weekly - Go through nutrition plan / plan meals / shop

This is such a vital part of a successful journey yet this is a big downfall I have had - not planning.  So - time to change this!

Weekly - Read blogs

I love reading other people's blogs, yet I get so busy and disorganised that I haven't ever sat down and set them all up so that I can follow them easily.  It means so much to me when people read my blog and I feel genuinely awful when I don't do the same for them.  And I get so inspired by reading them.  So I am committing to get myself set up properly from the start and read as many as I can. :) 

Monthly - Reassess goals

If there's one thing I know about goals, it's that you have to be open to reassess them.  I have no doubt that I will probably have to change these around at some points.  So I'll check in with myself every 4 weeks to see how I'm tracking. :)

My future 12WBT plan:

Round 4, 2012: Run 10km program (current)

Round 1, 2013: Half marathon program

Round 2, 2013: Lean & Fit program

Round 3, 2013: Lean & Fit program

Round 4, 2013: Lean & Strong program