Hello and Welcome!

I am, and always have been, a notoriously bad blogger. But I'm back to give it another try, one more time.

I seem to have rediscovered my "pep" in recent times, and I'm ready to try some new things, and get back into the things that matter to me... at this stage, this chiefly involves getting fit and losing weight (again!)




Monday, May 27, 2013

12WBT: Days 13, 14, 15

And we're over the two week mark, woo hoo! As with most things in life, in some ways it feels like I've been on the plan forever, in other ways it feels like those weeks have gone fast. To be honest, I wish we were 10 weeks down the track and I could just have the results without the hard work... but then the learning and growth (mental growth, not physical growth I hope!) is in the journey, not the destination. Despite having been down this weight loss and fitness road more times than I care to count, I can still feel myself learning and changing as I go along this time. Maybe some things I knew before and had forgotten, maybe some things are new. But it's good to learn and change as time goes by, so that's definitely a plus.

Two big lessons for the time elapsed thus far -


  • You can get by and not need to eat anything that stands still long enough on a reasonably small volume of food. It doesn't kill you. In previous endeavours, I have been lured in by the low-everything high-chemical alternatives to real food, because it meant I could eat a lot of volume. I thought that would make it satisfying... it doesn't. No matter how many kilos of chemical laden excuses for food you shovel down, you are never sated. Eating small portions of real foods that have real fats and real proteins and carbs in them is a much nicer way to live. And the food (usually) tastes a lot better too. I'm by no means perfect in this regard, I haven't managed to kick the diet soft drink habit yet (although it is reduced). I'll work on that in due course.

  • Hunger doesn't kill you. It's just a sensation like any other, and you don't have to give into it. What makes it hard is that you can "cure" it by eating something, unlike other body sensations like muscle pain, which you feel but can't do a whole lot about. But hunger doesn't HAVE to be cured. Sometimes it can be felt, acknowledged and ignored. I'm not talking about starving yourself, but eating to a balanced nutrition plan, albeit quite low calorie. It's doable, even if you do have to flex the willpower muscle on a fairly frequent basis.
Back to the weekly summaries...

Training day 13 - elite squad trampoline session at 7am (7am is rude on a Saturday quite frankly, but I have adapted pretty well over time). Mostly drills and no double backs or rudi's (yay, although I do need to work on both of them). I did some 1 3/4 fronts and had decent power, so hopefully the body is adapting to the food resources it has on hand.

After coaching the little horrors, I made my way to the gym to do the 12WBT super Saturday session. I actually did the week 3 session instead of week 2 - because week 2 was a repeat of week 1 and frankly I hated that session. Week 3 looked better, and on the whole it was, but holy moley it hurt. 1km warm up on the rower, then 5x a circuit of 8 different exercises, 20 reps of each (bench step ups with weights, push ups, walking lunges with overhead weight, bench burpees, bent over barbell pull ups, tricep dips, barbell shoulder presses and dumbbell bicep curls). After 2 rounds I didn't know that I was going to make it, but I sucked it up and got through. The plan called for 50 minutes on that circuit and I did it in about 39, so I think I did OK. The last few reps of the push ups were horrible though, I was shaking and could hardly get myself up. Damn do my shoulders and chest hurt 2 days on too...

Training day 14 - big fat fail. It was foggy as buggery when I got up and I really really didn't want to get out in the cold with my sore aching body. I eventually got myself sorted, got on my bike, rode up the street, got about 4km along and hit some glass, flat tyre. I took this as a sign that I was indeed not supposed to be out there, turned around and walked my flat tyre home!

Training day 15 - Monday pump! I had trouble getting moving out of bed, so I was running a little late, but I only missed about 5 reps at the start of the warm up :) I increased squats weight to 12.5kg and got through without any dramas (other than my damn shoes slipping on the floor), so I think I will increase that again for next session. Chest and shoulders were tough even at existing weights because of the pain inflicted from Saturday's session. Biceps and triceps are on the verge of going up 2.5kg I think.

And now, because it's taken me a day to put this post together with my scattered brain, the first half of Day 16 training, 5km early morning run. I still procrastinated getting started, expecting it to hurt. It did hurt, but it was waaaaay better than last week. My HRM is back in action, so I know the pace too, 30:30 for the 5km. I'd like to get that back to 30:00 and then add some distance, but I'm still happy happy with that time, given I've shaved 1:10 off a 5k in 2 weeks!

Nutrition wise, I'm kicking ass. Eating at my mum's place a couple of times a week is good for the fact that I don't have to cook those meals, but also a pain in the neck for the fact that her meals are a little higher calorie than my ideal, so I have to cut back during the day to fit it in. I'm doing that pretty successfully though, and I have avoided the lure of all the sweet crap she has everywhere in her house, no desserts, no raids on the chocolate bowl on the kitchen table.

I've had some really good meals off the 12WBT recipe planner, and a few "meh" ones. Yesterday's lunch was the worst thus far, quinoa and pumpkin salad. I could eat it, but it tasted pretty average to say the least. I've got one more meal of it, and I think I'm going to suffer and eat it. I'll wilt the baby spinach before I stir it through the quinoa though, and include a lot less lemon juice. That will help, but I can't see myself ever making it again somehow. It was pretty filling though, so I guess that's one upside.

On the whole, I've been sticking to my 1200 calories like glue. I've been 20 or 30 over a couple of days, but also under on other days so my average last week was 1192. It does get easier over time, although it is slightly depressing that there's no room for anything "extra" along the way. It's not forever though, and truth be known I'm far better off staying away from those "extras" until I'm sure I can leave my binge eating ways well behind me. Weigh in tomorrow, fingers crossed!

1 comment:

  1. Even on a non exercise day, I just can't pull of the 1200cal thing.
    I did try for a long time and just ended up binge eating like a mofo, and I never really binge normally!

    I rode saturday. Now I have the plague.

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