For two days I ate and ate...

....and lost weight!

Thats right - I gave myself a break over the weekend in the change over time from points to No Count, and basically ate whatever I wanted. Chose no count meals as practice, but snacked on what I wished - which ended up including a packet of smarties (raffle win from my children's pretend shop!), a lolly snake, and some popcorn, along with the better stuff like lo fat yoghurt, fruit, and a few nuts. I also drank about 2 litres of powerade -which under the points system is about 8 points - but I am determined to have some intensive hydration this week - regardless of the calorie cost.

So it was with trepidation that I stepped on the scales this morning - to be greeted with 62.7kgs (which would be a 1.1kg loss for the week). That's the lowest weight I've seen yet, and too low I reckon. So I stepped on again - and weighed at 63.0kgs - which is what I've recorded for this week. The 62.7 might have been a "flukey" weigh in, and I think it will make it too hard next week as I try and judge the impact of NoCount.

So this amounts to a loss of 0.8kgs which I am VERY happy about.

Updates

My weekly update for my running schedule is attached
http://www.sendmefile.com/00444522
Run was much better today - hopefully responding to increased intake yesterday, and concerted efforts on improving my hydration

BTW - the scales are no longer "fickle" they give me the same weight no matter how I stand on them now - whats with that? I'm confused but it seems my scales no longer are!

I tried on shorts today - and they looked good! Weeelll - its not like my legs looked thin, but they looked toned and shapely and I'm very happy with that. Will have to buy some sometime....

Officially start No Count tomorrow.....

Desperate for energy

Well, exercise wise, the weeks been tough. I've felt so low in energy that running has been a real struggle. Wednesday night I gave up after about 5 mins, and put it down to not sleeping well, and then Friday (I did do two hours of light cardio and balance on Thursday) I really had to push myself to even go to the gym. I ran, but every interval I wanted to stop as my legs didn't seem to have it in them.

I was thinking that maybe setting the goal of the City Bay was a bad thing, because its creating too much pressure on me/stopping me from just enjoying my exercise, but then I had a big review of my current weight loss/eating status, and I think I've had an epiphany!

Here's how Ive been feeling/whats been happening:

• No energy - finding it hard to get out of bed in the mornings, no energy during the day, no energy for heavy exercise, tired the minute I get home and wanting to go to bed!
• Dry lips, dry eyes
• Cold, oh so very, very cold, all the time
• A little nauseous
• Hunger pains
• Weight not shifting. If you've read my post below, my weight promptly shifted right back up to 64 kgs and looks like staying there. I think I'm heading for essentially the same weight three weeks in a row - with no real reason for it

A friend has suggested a few times that I might be anaemic. This got me thinking.... I realised that I don't eat ANY red meat. None at all. And not because I've decided not to, I just never choose it - I always eat chicken, fish or vegetarian. So then I decided to use an internet resource and get a dietary analysis of a typical day. And guess what? Not only am I not getting enough iron and folate, I didn't meet the dietary requirements for any food group or any nutritional element. NONE. And the energy component said I was only eating 35% of my minimum energy requirements! I reviewed what I had entered and found I had underestimated some things, and when I altered these, I still only ended up meeting 65% of my required intake. And I've been eating like this for 9 months!

So now I'm worried that not only may I be anaemic, but I may be malnuourished in a few areas! And I think the dry lips/dry eyes are a sign of dehydration. (i know I don't drink enough water). So my body may well be shutting down my metabolism, making me tired and cold, and refusing to let my weight shift.

So..... I will go to the GP and my levels checked, but I have decided to switch from POINTS to NO COUNT. The reason for this is that I don't always make the healthiest choices on the points programme, and refuse to allow myself to go over the daily points. I have been on 18 points for 6 months, and it is very hard to fit in all the nutritional requirements, it doesn't leave much room to move and have occasional treats. I am frequently hungry, but refuse to let myself eat as i need to save my points for the next meal/ or to make sure I have enough left for the day. By switching to NO COUNT I am hoping it will force me to eat healthier foods, encourage me to eat more meat (I always keep my portions small as meat has too many points), and allow me to snack on healthy foods to my hearts (and stomach's) content so that I no longer need to be hungry. That way if I want to snack on fruit before or after the gym for that carbohydrate hit which is recommended, I can. (Struggled with this before as it costs me too many points)

However I am scared about this change. I've always said that this plan is not for me, as there are not enough controls, and I will overeat. I am terrified that I will put on weight with the programme. But I realised something else during the week. I was talking to a fellow weight watcher and talking about snacking. I was agreeing wtih her how I can't snack - when I realised this has changed. I do snack quite successfully now! I can have two pieces of chocolate at night and quite happily stop at that, or small quantities of many other treats. I also only ever look for small portions - so maybe I will mange on NO COUNT after all!

I will officially start on Monday and monitor my wieght from there. If it goes up - I will switch back. But I will also repeat the dietary analysis each week to see if my intake improves. And I'm doing a bit of a combo this weekend, to see if I can raise my energy levels.

Will see how it all goes. Hopefully the change will spur me on to lose the last 6 kilos, help me with my energy levels, and set me up for a healthy long term diet on maintenance

The Problem with Weekly Weigh Ins..

I won't bore you with all the details about why I am a daily weigher - I've posted often enough about this , but here's an example of the issues of relying on weekly weigh ins.

As per my previous post, Tues, Wed, Thurs last week saw me sitting on 63.4 kgs (I thought a good early loss for the week). Then inexplicably, on Friday my weight went up to 64.0 and stayed there for Saturday and Sunday. Finally, Monday (official weekly weigh in day) the scales showed 63.8 kgs - a whole 100gm loss for the week. Now if I only weighed in weekly, I'd be pretty upset, because I know I've eaten within my points, and exercised heaps - not much to show for a weeks efforts. But I also know better - that weekly weigh ins are just a snap shot, and not always a good indicator of whats going on. Because today when I stepped on the scales - guess what - I'm back to 63.4! If only my weigh in day had been Tuesday!

Nah it doesn't really matter - its what happens to your weight over time that counts. I actually record my LWE (lowest weight ever) on a chart on the wall at home, and every time I see a new low weight - I mark it off. Doesn't matter if my weight fluctuates up again, I just know that I've achieved a new all time low.

More running success

Aren't our bodies amazing things?

You give 'em a good flogging and they just keep getting better.

You may remember my dismay at trying to run at 10kms/hour 1 1/2 weeks ago when I tried to run it at intervals of 4 mins (run) and 2 mins (walk) and it killed me...Well since then I've run at intervals of 3:2 which has been much more manageable but this weekend has been quite interesting.

Was sick Wed/Thurs - so no exercise. Still felt yuck on Friday but went to work, and then thought - "I'll just do a light work out at the gym" (she says sneakily to herself).
Then "I'll just try a little bit of running - after all I can stop any time" So I did a couple of intervals of 3:2, and then thought "Well if I increase my recovery time to account for my sick body - I could run for longer - right?" So I did. I ran 3:3 for 5 kms! (Not quite light me thinks). On my last set my HB arrived to pick me up. But he had errands to run and couldn't wait for me to finish - said he 'd come back. OK. So I finished my running, cooled down with some walking, and walking, and walking. At the 6.6 kms mark I thought, "Heck if he turns up now I'll be too close to 7kms to stop - I'd better run to get there quicker. So I did. And then it happened again at the 7.6km mark, and again at the 8.6km mark. By then I was so sure that he was going to walk in at any minute that I decided to just keep running until I couldn't run any more. And he turned up at the 9.5km mark and I had to cool down again. Holy heck - I did nearly 10kms without meaning too - and this was meant to be light! Anyway - felt good afterwards, and haven't had any more cold symptoms - Yeah for exercise.

So having had two unexpected days off during the week, I gave up my Saturday rest day, joined the WW exercise challenge and headed off to the gym again in the morning. Now keeping in mind that Sunday is my big run day, I needed to make sure I didn't run, so I did 60mins walking speed/incline intervals on the treadmill, covering another 5.5 kms. - Plus some other light stuff for the exercise challenge, but having to be careful not to overdo it before the Sunday City/Bay training.

So Sunday....my big success.
Having already covered at least 15kms in the last two days, and not sleeping well Saturday night, I was skeptical about my 4 km race pace run. I have already revised by race pace to a minimum of 5:1 @10kms/hour, in case I can't run the whole 12 ks, but I knew I wasn't up to this even for the 4 K run. So my plan was to try the 4:2 intervals that I couldn't manage comfortably a week or so ago. but guess what? After the 4 mins I still felt good so I did 5! and did the whole 4 kms at 5:2 intervals! And in my last set I ran 6 mins to complete the 4 kms.!! Much better than I could have hoped for and not far off of my 5:1 plan.!!!

Now I know this is only over 4 K's and not the whole 12, but according to the training schedule I'm doing, I only need to be able to run 4 k's at this stage. And I know I can run at least 5 k's continuously at a lower speed, I just need to pull up my speed at the moment, whilst my endurance is within the required range for the training schedule.

Clear as mud?
Sick of my training rambles?
Sorry, but this blog is mainly for me, I need to have records of my journey to reflect back on, and if you happen to gain something from it as well - what a bonus!

Any way - weigh in tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to it. Although I have been very good all week, the scales were sitting on 63.4 early in the week, and then Friday morning jumped up to 64 and have sat there ever since - so I fear there will be no loss to record this week, which is making my goal weight date more and more difficult to achieve. Ohh well - we'll see. As Doris Day sang Que Sera Sera (What ever will be, will be)

For my updated Beginner Runners Training schedule - try this link:
http://www.sendmefile.com/00438956
Hope it works!

My Goal Figure

This is Penny Mackinnon - body blitz winner from last year, and she has provided me with a "goal figure" since the beginning of my journey. I have spent a lot of time looking at photos of people at goal weights and calculating their BMI - so that I can tell what BMI I need to achieve to get a similar look. You see one of my frustrations is that as a newbie to weight loss, you look at the weight loss success stories in Weight Watchers/Slimming magazines, and think - if I get into my healthy weight range - I'll look like that. But you know what - for the most part we wont. Because many people set their goal weight just inside the upper limit of healthy weight - a BMI of around 24, but most of these successful slimmers in the magazines have BMI's around 20 - at the bottom of the healthy weight ranges. Frustrating hey - imagine getting to your goal weight and then still feeling "fat" compared to others! So I've been watching this very carefully - measuring the BMI's up to "the look" that I want to achieve.

So my WW goal weight is set around the absolute minimum that I feel I must achieve - a healthy BMI of 24 - which equates to 57kgs for me. But to achieve the look that Penny Mackinnon has, I need to have a BMI around 21 and weigh between 50 - 52 kgs. Once I have achieved a healthy BMI - to be honest I don't really care what my final weight ends up being, as long as I have developed this "lean" look. I wouldn't mind having slightly more muscle than Penny, and if this weighs more - so be it. But I will be aiming for 20% body fat, rather than a specific weight.

I plan to reach goal in September, but be at this leaner weight by Christmas. So keep this in mind with regards to my Summer Essentials Wardrobe - I plan to have a lean, mean figure that's worth showing off!

The Ultimate Summer Wardrobe!

• 
  You know how magazines always have photo spreads on "summer must haves" "autumn essentials" etc and you often look at them and go "yeah, that would be great, if only I was starting from scratch!" Well, this summer I WILL be at goal weight, and I will be starting my wardrobe from scratch - so I thought I would start planning it now, and plan it well so that I focus my spending on the key items I really want rather than being opportunistic with bargains and ending up with a whole heap of things that don't all go together...Do you know what I mean. You know - you keep buying fab tops, only to realise you don't really have the right jeans to wear with them, or have great trousers, but really need a plain white shirt to go with them, or never have any dressy clothes, or never have any casual clothes etc.
  I thought that if I start scouring the magazines I could work out what basics I need/have to have (as in want to have) and then build from there. I have started scanning the photos into my computer and hope to set up some sort of link to my planned summer wardrobe soon. But I also thought it would be great if you have any ideas as to what are "must haves"
  
  Here's the start of my list:
  Denim shorts
  Nicely fitting all purpose white TShirt
  Skinny jeans
  Bootleg jeans
  Trendy summer dress (maybe spotty given the trend this season)
  Beach type dress (NB have never been able to wear dresses B4 - hence are a must have)
  ????
  
  What else do you suggest?
  

Ain't It Grand!

Here 'tis - the new couch has finally arrived - and ain't it grand! I have been home sick today so have been curled up on it all day long reading a book. Mmmm and being leather, it smells good too!

PS - have managed to get the link to my weight loss graph working now.

Fickle Scales

Well I did it! Recorded a weight of 63.9 this morning which gives me a 1.0 weight loss for the week..... Well sort of. I've discovered a problem. I have good quality digital scales (at least I thought I did) and they measure body fat percentage as well, but I've discovered that if I lean to the left, I can get a lower reading???? I thought that maybe this was related to the floor in the bathroom - I examined it careful and it does seem to slope to the left slightly. So I tried the scales in a different spot - and got a different weight....and another spot and another weight....
So I now I'm not really sure what my weight is. I guess I should continue to weigh myself in the spot that I always have, but it makes it difficult as my body now has a mind of its own and leans to the left for a better response! Mmm can't change scales at this point either as they all provide different weights. I guess the actual weight though isn't as important as seeing the change - so consistency of approach rules! I will continue as is, and have to be strict as to how I stand - but how was I standing when I weighed this morning? I have no idea, I weighed myself so many times I lost track. Still, I did see 63.9 on two of them, have seen this reading during the week, and was very good on the weekend; did double the exercise (walked for and extra 4 kms) and came in for the day at 16 points - I deserved a good weigh in! Still if I've recorded myself too low, I guess the weight loss next week will just look less. Eventually can't cheat myself!

Changed my ticker this morning - figured if I changed it each week you would know its been updated. I just loved the new cheesecake one - cheesecake is my favourite food and I really haven't eaten it in 8 months. Had a few mouthfuls of a piece the other day that a friend brought to my house - but it was coffee flavoured - and in my books that's not really cheesecake!
There were also some lovely bright tickers around, but I'm not choosing one of them until the weather improves and warrants it!

A Different Before Picture...

This is a before picture of where the Chesterfield is going tomorrow

Here’s a bit of an overview of what the room looks like. There is one red feature wall, then the remaining ones are in yellow. I’ve restored the fireplace, and in the photo at the bottom, you can see one of my leadlight windows. (You'll probably have to click on the photo to get it large enough to see. It’s the gold couch on the right (bottom photo again) which we are replacing with the Chesterfield. This old couch that you can see was a $100 garage sale bargain as an interim measure until I could afford what I wanted. Well tomorrow I get it!

Also - I haven't been keeping my exercise plan up to date, as I've been focussing on the Beginner Runner's Training Schedule for the City/Bay (usually done in addition to my normal classes - but not always - depends on what I can fit it).

Any way - here is a link to my training schedule. Can't really find a good way to provide this for you, hopefully the link isn't too cumbersome. I'm just going to have to update teh link every time I update the schedule.

http://www.sendmefile.com/00432081

I HATE WINTER!!!!!!

I HATE WINTER!  Have I yelled it loudly enough yet!  I’m so sick and tired of being cold. I’m miserable, the day is dreary,  its too cold to do the things I love on the weekend like leadlighting cause its TOO DAMN COLD – even with 4 layers of clothing (I can barely still move) and the heater on in the shed!
Its also depressing…. Bring on summer, I just can’t wait.

Its not like me to be depressed.  I’m the sort of person who jumps out of bed at 6.00 am on a weekend cause there are so many wonderful things that I want to fit into my day – at the moment I’m bored all day long in front of the computer and heater.  I read a whole book this weekend – this may sound great, but to me it signifies lots of wasted time that I could have been spending on other things. There’s plenty of time to read at night, I like to use my days a bit more productively.  Plus I’ve got no where comfy and warm to curl up and read….until tomorrow that is.  A couple of weeks ago I ordered a chesterfield sofa and it comes TOMORROW – yeeeaaaah.  I have a leather lounge suite in the lounge, but hubby is always in there watching TV, which I’m not really in to, so at night I like to read (or watch the occasional different TV programme) in our formal sitting room.  But the seats in there are old and uncomfortable  - but not for long hey! Will try and post some piccy’s when it arrives.

I guess I shouldn’t be so miserable, cause I also bought a new treadmill yesterday on ebay.  I have sold my old one to someone at work, because it doesn’t go fast enough for my running, and have bought a You Beaut one.  It goes up to 18 km/hr, has 24 programmes including speed intervals and incline intervals, individual programme settings, automatic incline and all the normal readings.  Plus a 50 cm wide belt which is wider than most, and more comfortable to run on I think.  Can’t pay for it until Thursday when I get paid, and then on Friday I will get $500 back from the person who has bought mine.  I hope its as good as it sounds, cause they are so much cheaper on Ebay.  Any of the ones I’ve looked at in stores are over $2,000  (and this one is supposed to retail for $2,500) and I bought it for $860. Quite the bargain hey – well as long as its as good as its meant to be…. The proof will be in the pudding as they say – will let you know how the “feast” progresses when it arrives.

I don’t know why I’m so depressed then, life is really pretty good, I should be exceptionally  excited with all my new purchases.  But then again, its winter AND dreary AND raining, and this is what this weather does to you, it just depresses me!!!!

Weigh in tomorrow, and I’m hoping to be under 64 kgs this time –although that would mean a 1kg loss for the week, so I guess I’m setting my expectations a bit high.  Maybe I’ll go for a bit of a walk on my old treadmill while I still can, in the hope of tipping the scales in my favour tomorrow. Might quell my hunger.

See ya

Wow Killed myself at the gym tonight!

Wow – Killed myself at the gym tonight.  In an effort to get my speed up for the City Bay I (foolishly) told myself that if I could run intervals of 3 mins/2 mins @10k/hr on Sunday, surely I could run intervals of 4 mins/2 mins.  After all – what’s in a minute!  A HELL OF A LOT OF PAIN, HARDWORk, PANTING, SWEAT, HOT…….It was really hard, the first two minutes of each interval was ok, the 3rd, really pushing it and the 4th – bordering on death by treadmill!  I had to lengthen a couple of my intervals just to be able to catch my breath.  But being the annoyingly stubborn person that I am – I finished it to the end, including running @ 12k/hr for the last 30 secs.  Covered 5 km in all, and came off the treadmill looking like a red lobster – I was so puffed!

On a good note – I had my second fitness test as I’m now 6 weeks into the fitness challenge.  My fitness had improved but according to their scales, I’ve lost 5 kgs in 6 wks – WOOHOO.  This is about7% of my bodyweight, and just about more than any of the weightloss teams have lost over the same period!  Go team Lisa!

I also had a health check at work today – and my blood pressure was 102/65 which is nice and low and healthy – YES!

So not bad overall I’d say for one day – and yes, if you haven’t picked it up from my posts yet, I am obsessed with fitness!

Piccy update

Here I am off for my run yesterday - having difficulty uploading the photos yesterday, but it worked ok today - so here it is. You can't see the muscle definition in this photo, but I think you can see the narrowing waist! (And the fact that I'm not a very good photographer using the self timer button - lost my head!)

FInally, a 64

It may be only by a smidgen, but finally I registered a 64.9 for the official weekly weigh in this morning. Yeah! Threw in an extra run last night just to be sure (ran another 4kms, walked 1km)
Am going to throw in some extra treadmill walking/running in front of the TV this week just to reinvigorate my weight loss this week as its been like pushing a rock up hill the last few weeks.

The 80/20 Rule

Well there are lots of 80/20 rules out there, but this is just one I made up!

My personal belief is that effective weight loss is 80% diet, and 20% exercise. I know heaps of people who go to teh gym with me, who say they don't lose any weight, but they have lost cms (and they don't diet), as well as plenty of people who've lost heaps of weight without exercise - but the question is - do they have good shape, or just look thin?

I made a decision at the beginning of my journey that I didn't just want to be thin, I wanted a scultped toned body with good curves. After all, there are plenty of thin people who don't have great figures. And I think exercise is really helping with this. I"ve lost 36 cms around my waist, and only 28 cms from my bust - so I think down with the theories that say you lose weight evenly and can't spot reduce - I can only put down the growing difference in bust/waist ratio to exercise. Without the exercise I might weight the same (or even less if I take into account muscle gain), but I doubt I would have the same shape. I have line definition around my biceps and triceps, the beginnings of a 6 pack around my abs (very beginnings!), deltoid definition, firm thighs and calves, and a narrowing waist - none of which I think would have occured without exercise, but I don't think I would have lost weight without the diet aspect.

One of my key theories has been that I needed the diet to lose weight but the exercise to keep it off. And this was confirmed yesterday with a Weight Watchers article in the science section that said that there were links between maintaining long term weight loss and exercise. I also then read an interesting article that said that the recommended 30 mins exercise /day is great for improving your health, but to improve fitness or prevent re-gain of weight, you needed to exercise for 45 - 60 mins daily at a moderate intensity, or shorter if at a higher intensity. So to all those who give me a hard time for being gym obsessed - I think I am just setting myself up for healthy weight for life!

PS - for my run today I ran intervals of 10 kms/hour with walking (3 mins/2mins ), and this was very encouraging. After a while I got used to the 10 km speed and it didn't feel so fast - I'm thinking now that even if I don't get fit enough to run the whole 12 kms at this speed, I'm very confident that with another 10 weeks of running under my belt, I could run 5 min/1 min run walk intervals for the full 12 kms with no great difficulty. This would take me 78 mins instead of my goal of 72 mins - but hey - thats pretty good for someone who couldn't run for more than 2 mins @ 7.0kms hour in Feb!
PPS -I also ran the last min @ 12km/hr - a new speed record for me (i"m actually surprised I didn't fall off the treadmill!)
PPPS - I'm now going to have to sell my home treadmill and upgrade it - it only goes up to 10 km/hr (in fact I can only get it up to 9.6). I never envisaged when I bought it that I would need it to go any higher than 6 -7 km/hour for walking! Cool huh

Mid Week Update

Well, I haven't had much of a chance to update lately, have been very busy and away again for work. Managed to survive for two days away without the scales this time, and keep up with my running programme, and did one class at a nearby gym. The combat class was quite encouraging, as apart from the muscle bound body builder on my left, and the could be state footballer on my right - I reckon I was about the fittest there! I was doing all the high impact stuff whilst everyone else took the low impact road! Yeh me!
Scales this morning did show me at 64.8 - just under my weeks goal of 65, but the weekend is always more challenging - particularly as I'm having a dinner party tonight! But as the hostess with the mostess - I'll be serving the least - the least calories and fat that is. Have cooked the Chicken and Spinach Lasagne from Symply Too Good to Be True (4.5 points/serve). Braised Lamb with Lentils (Continental recipe - calculated at 5.5 points/serve) Sweet and Sour Pork Stir fry (no idea really, but its just meat vegies, hokkein noodles, and a little sauce - my guess about 6 points). So if I have a third of a serve of each - I should only be eating about 5 - 6 points. Although, and a friend is bringing one of my favorite deserts i think - may have to indulge in this - have been keeping the points low all day.

Running wise - I've finished week 2 of the Beginners training guide for the City Bay. - All went ok , but I see that in two weeks time I have to be able to run 4 kms at race pace (which I've set at 10kms/hour, so that I can run the 12 kms in 72 mins). This seems a bit of a stretch as I can only run at this pace for about 3 mins at the moment!. I can run the 4 kms ok, but but I am just slow - currently running at about 8.5 kms/hr. Well, will try and run at 9.0kms/hr this week, I may have to adjust my race pace yet - will wait and see.

Having another fitness test next week, my team is halfway through the fitness challenge. Very interested to see if there is a noticeable improvement. Its done on a bike though, and I hate bikes, so I never feel very fit on it at all! Hopefully it will make no difference.

Well thats it for now, two more days to weigh in - lets see if I can crack the 65 kg barrier....