LOOK WHAT I HAVE NOW

thanks to the lovely Miss Kerry. We were talking recently about eating on plan and how much I hadnt been eating on plan and I mentioned that I've never had a cooler bag. Her comment "How did you ever survive without one?".

Well throughout comp prep last year it was mainly cold and there never seemed to be a problem with taking my food with me. I managed without one as best I could.

But on a recent trip to Melbourne Kerry bought this fabulous cooler bag for me and I got it in the post yesterday. I cant thank her enough for her kindness and generosity and now I have absolutely no excuse for eating off plan if I'm out and about ... do I?

All is good in my lets-work-to-get-this-body-fat-off world. The Metal Monster was very kind this morning dropping .4kgs below my lowest weight last week. I'm getting closer to the sub 70s and I'm excited and impatient to get there ...well not really ...I just have to keep doing what I'm doing and it'll happen.

Keeping it short and sweet tonight as WH has heaps of work and will kick me off the computer any minute.

Cheers all

Magda

LIFESAVING STRATEGIES

Last night I promised that I would post about stuff that Liz has recommended for me to help me survive the busy social weekend I have coming up. I just know its going to make all the difference between a happy time a stressful time trying hard to stay 100% on track.

Firstly my wine allowance has been relaxed. Yippee!! I'm going to play it by ear as to how much of it I need/want but if the fancy takes me then I know I have flexibility with it.

Secondly we have a strategy for managing the food. Just really good advice like: dont arrive hungry, have a little of the things on offer, taste rather than gorge and when I'm having something which may be a bit indulgent I'm to savour every mouthful.

Thirdly my cardio gets ramped up to twice each day on the weekend. This will be difficult to fit in but I will make the best effort possible to make it happen.

So through all of that we are aiming for me to feel "included and enjoying nice food and wine like all of the other people".

Liz and I also negotiated a plan to help me avoid the Binge Monster that took hold of me last Friday. As I have posted before there is this 3 week curse that seems to plague me every time I seriously try to get my body fat down. I do good in the first week. I do ok in the 2nd week but little signs of struggle start showing and then the 3rd week just feels like an endless struggle and my craving for sweets just gets stronger and stronger.

So we have agreed that every 3 weeks I will have an allowed indulgence of either cake (my absolute favourite indulgence) or a restaurant meal out where I choose what I want rather than what I feel I should have. I will probably choose cake as that is usually what I crave the most but I'll have it without guilt and without regret and know that its "legal" and hopefully will not ruin it by stuffing myself with sweets until I can fit no more in. (I believe I can do it!!)

So there are some strategies that we are putting into place to help me achieve a healthy and lean lifestyle without feeling deprived or obsessed with weighing and logging food or too restricted or just going crazy for whatever reason.

When you think of it, nothing there is rocket science but I believe it helps to be reminded of what is a good sensible approach. Even after a year off I find myself resorting to "comp-diet-mentality" every so often and its something I'm trying to move away from.

BTW I did have a Terrific Tuesday.

Cheers all

Magda

MY MAGNIFICENT MONDAY

Up at 5am to train. The Metal Monster is showing a 1.3kg spike. Man thats a lot of water stuck in there so looking forward to it "leaving the building".

I have a HR crisis at work today. I cant stop laughing about it - thats my shocked reaction and a cover for underlying nerves. I think to myself "what a comedy of errors this selection process has been".

My Director and I attend a high level meeting at our Big Brother Department. I've prepared for it but am nervous liaising with several other Directors. My Director throws over to me to do the talking and I nail it. I get my point across clearly and with enough conviction to drive the key issues home. If I could have, I would have jumped out of my seat, pulled my top over my head/face and done laps around the board room table waving my arms in the air in a sign of victory........ maybe not. I dont think the Directors could have handled that.

My point is that nothing got me down today. Not the Metal Monster. Not the HR crisis. And not the nervousness going into the meeting. My head space is where I want it to be.

Food has been great. Lunch today was Tandoori chicken breast done on the BBQ with salad. It was delicious. Dinner was left-over salmon (a bit over heated and dry but still tasty) with carrots and beans. For breakfast I had wholemeal toast with lean short-cut bacon, an egg and mushrooms. My snacks were also ones that I look forward to and not tuna that sits very low on my list of favourite foods.

OK I'm ready for a Terrific Tuesday.

Cheers all

Magda

PS I'll blog tomorrow about some great stuff that Liz and I have devised and agreed on. She is a legend and making sure I stay happy and sane while I tackle this excess fat.

ON FIRE AGAIN

Hi all,

I've had a fantastic day today and am now 100% back on track and ready to take on the world :-)

I did 2 fill-in classes at my old gym this morning and really enjoyed teaching again. It was nice to be made so welcome by many of my old clients and I had some newbies that gave me good feedback too. The fact that I burned 700+ cals was just the icing on the cake ... speaking of which I have a theory/idea that I've put to Liz and am hoping for a positive response before I post about it.

Food has been great today. I was out grocery shopping and stopped in at my local cafe for a skim cappuccino (I believe in supporting my local businesses LOL). On the counter was the usual jar of almond finger biscuits that I absolutely love. I looked at them but was not the least bit tempted to have one. I had my coffee and that in itself is progress for me again.

I'm now also better organised for food. Part of Friday's binge was a result of being bored with eating the same thing too many times in a row and also being a bit hungry from too small a serve. So now I have some variety in my food and my portion sizes are correct. It helps that the fridge is bursting at the seams with veges and we have a variety of protein sources to choose from. Oh and I'm vowing right here and now that I WILL NOT eat food that I dont enjoy just because its healthy/good for me/on hand. There is a brand and flavour of tuna that will not pass my lips again thanks to a yucky experience with it on Friday. Enough said.

I'm feeling a bit bloated through the middle as I've been chucking down gallons of water but there hasnt been the reciprical exiting at the other end. Oh well, it'll come when its ready and then hopefully the Metal Monster wont be too cruel LOL.

So mentally I'm in the right head space to have another awesome week. Next weekend will be tough with 3 major social events but I'll deal with those when they arrive. Right now its back to the task at hand and thats to make Monday magnificent.

Cheers all

Magda

AND DOWN I GO

I didnt make it through the week without a binge.

Now I could spend the next 3 -4 paragraphs analysing it all and bore you all to tears or I could just say "yep I slipped up and I ate some stuff that I shouldnt have (but I did REALLY enjoy it LOL)" Am I gonna kick myself over it and beat myself up over it? You know what? The answer is NO.

I have a long journey ahead of me and the road wont be smooth travelling all the way. There will be times when I make bad choices for whatever reason but when I do its important that I pick myself up and keep going. And thats what I'm focussing on now.

Yesterday was FAR from ideal and even today was not 100% back on track but I'm looking forward to a better day tomorrow and then another after that and then another etc. I might make it past my week 3 curse next time around and if not then it might be the time after that. I know I wont give up trying though.

Thanks to everybody who has offered their support and encouragement this week. It has helped me immensely (even with yesterday's events). You live and learn and if you apply what you learnt the next time around then you keep moving closer to your goals.

Sounds ok to me.

:-) Magda

HANGING BY MY NAILS

It was a really challenging day today and at times I felt like I was hanging on by my nails.

I was under pressure at work and was stressing a bit about how I’d handle something. Couple that with being at my desk for longer periods and I was really fighting the craving for comfort food (eg JUNK). I wasn’t hungry. I just wanted comfort. But I stuck to my planned meals.

Then I attended a function after work. They had free drinks and I almost talked myself into having a wine (which I know I could have had out of my 2 / week allowance but would prefer to keep my allowance for the weekend to really savour and enjoy). So I ordered a Diet Coke.

When the nibbles went around and I hadn’t eaten for almost 5 hours, I chose a king sized prawn (marinated and cooked – not crumbed) and 2 small bits of sushi. Pretty good choices I thought, seeing they included protein and carbs. Still pretty much on plan.

On the way home I remembered that I only had chicken cooked but no veges so my mind started to go wild with all the possibilities of what to get for dinner... Wok in a Box Noodles or BBQed chicken and salad or HJs (OMG did I just admit to that??!!). But I went straight home.


I arrived home quite late, tired, and NOT in the mood to cook. I didnt want salad as its quite cool tonight. After toing and froing about whether to go out or not (WH had gotten home late too) we didn’t go and I ended up throwing another batch of stir fried veges together and having exactly the same thing for dinner as I’d had for lunch. Not ideal but better than takeaway and it meant my food was good for the day.

Oh I almost forgot … I had one scorched almond today during a meeting with my boss. I can live with that indiscretion LOL.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record I know my blog has been really food and control focussed this week but it really is a challenge around this time and it helps me to write about it. Maybe next week I'll be feeling more confident and taking things in my stride more. Its worth working towards.

Cheers all

Magda

A POSITIVE ATTITUDE IS KEEPING ME GOING

In posting on Lindy's forum (LindyOlsen.com) I realised that my chosen positive attitude is keeping me going this week. Why do I say "chosen"? Because I have a positive attitude plastered in place by choice. There are a million and one things that could drag me down this week (feeling the stress a bit at work) but I've decided that they wont. When I'm faced with a difficult situation or issue I try to handle it as best as possible rather than get upset because I'm not sure what to do and I might get it wrong. If something goes well I give msyelf a bit of quiet self praise and if I score some praise or positive comments from other people then thats a real bonus and I lap it up.

There have been times when my mind has wandered to junky food like when I'm walking to work and I pass the cafes with their cakes on display or even walking past Maccas (which I hate). For a moment I think "gee I'd love ????" but I dont give in to it as I easily talk myself out of having whatever took my fancy for that split second. This is progress for me as I've usually given in to those instant cravings all to easily.

Like today I had been to a meeting and was walking back to work feeling very hungry. I had a Slim Secrets bar in my bag but I really wanted a cappuccino although I knew that seeing all the cakes on display would really test me. But I braved it and went into GJs, druelled over the cake counter for about 10 seconds and then ordered the cappucinno and ate my Slim Secrets bar with it. Not a perfectly clean meal but 100% better than a coffee and a traditional cake to go with it. Which could then easily have turned into an all out "well I've blown it so I might as well have everything junky that I can possibly think of and stuff in" day. (You may be laughing now but in all seriousness I've had many days like this before.)

Oh and I just realised that we are now officially overthe hump. Yippee to moving forward and closer to the weekend.

:-) Magda

BRIEF CHECK-IN

Nutrition: tick

Training: tick

Head Space: tick

Another day closer to my goals both short and long term.

Not much to blog today but wanted to "check-in" as it helps keep me on track and accountable. I have a busy night with some work that must be done and then hoping to get to bed early like last night.

Cheers all

Magda

THIS IS A JOURNEY AND NOT A SPRINT

Wow thanks to everyone who left an encouraging comment on my last blog post. I know I'm doing well but I've been here many times before and the week 3 demise has gotten me every time so I'm very mindful of it this time around.

Anyway day 1 has gone well. I even managed 5 meals today which is a first for about 2 weeks. I'm sure a Slim Secrets bar counts as an ok meal especially if you're out and about and the alternative is raiding the platters of cakes and muffins at the seminar you're attending. Gee some of them looked so good too but I stayed well away.

Training: well I'm ticking the boxes and am really enjoying my walks. Normally I find walking too boring but I'm thankful that I'm not having to flog myself (yet) and I'm still seeing the scale numbers going down. My postural work is stepping up a little and thats exciting too.

Mentally I'm feeling really good and I think that its contributing significantly to my success. I'm not obsessive about my food because I dont have to log everything and for me logging = weighing/measuring everything which can get tedious. I have my weekly treats to look forward to and when I eat them I take the time to savour them rather than just stuffing down as much as I can as quickly as possible.

I'm really working on changing my mindset from "can I?" to "I will" and ditching the all or nothing mentality that got me in such a bad place before. There's still a long way to go but small steps in the right direction will get me there. After all, this is a journey and not a sprint.

Cheers all

Magda

SUNDAY FUNDAY

WH was out at a golf clinic all morning but I managed to get in a 50 minute walk before he left and then I added 10 minutes on my trusty old exercise bike. What a great start to the day.

After breakfast I got stuck into housework and some of my spring cleaning jobs. Neither is high on my list of things I like to do but when my house is tidy and clean I'm a happier person. I like to start the week with a clean and tidy kitchen, bathrooms and floors and then I can watch it all dirty up as the week goes by :-)

I'm really pleased that I got through another weekend by eating well (hitting the targets Liz set for me) and doing some effective training. I stayed within my wine limit and wasnt even phased by WH having beer/wine and nibbles before dinner while I just had a Diet Coke. Our Chinese BBQed pork was superb and healthy too. There are left-overs for during the week so we'll be enjoying it again in a couple of days time (might be a good time to take pics of it). What a far cry from previous weekends where I'd have 3-4 glasses of wine on Friday, Saturday and sometimes Sunday too. Oh and lets not forget all the nibbly foods that go with the wine before dinner. I shudder to think of the calories, fat and carbs that I was consuming. Is it any wonder my weight crept up so high??!!

So here I am about to start Week 3 which previously has been my "danger-zone". This is usually where I drop my bundle and find some excuse, justification or unavoidable situation where I just have to eat what I want and make sure I get way too much of it because I've been so deprived. Then the "oh I've blown my diet so I might as well have whatever I want from here on" mentality sets in and I take myself back to square one. I have been my own worst enemy over and over again in the past. Can I break that negative cycle now??

Magda

WAVING GOOD-BYE TO THE FIRST 5 ....

....kilos that is.

My interlude with the Metal Monster was very pleasant this morning. I took measurements first and some had gone down and others had stayed the same so I wasnt sure what the numbers would say. I was almsot dreading the reading but decided that it wouldnt matter anyway. Well to my surprise I had a drop of .5kgs since Tuesday and that made a total of 1.5kgs for this week. I HAVE LOST 5KGS IN MY FIRST 2 WEEKS TRAINING WITH LIZ!!!!

I have just under 1.5 to go before I hit the sub 70 and that will be my first major milestone achieved. I have decided that I'll treat myself to a salon pedicure rather than struggling to do my own. Unless I have a major melt-down in this next week (its been known to happen!!) I'm looking a dead cert to achieve my sub 70 goal well before Xmas and I'm feeling damn good about that.

My WH and BS were both up way too early today and normally that would piss me off but I was in such a good mood it didnt bother me. I headed out for my walk and had an extra spring in my step and when it came to my rower intervals I pushed - or rather pulled- as hard as I could. I have been on fire with a great attitude and just following Coach's program. Even my 2 wines / week limit is viewed as my "glass-half-full" rather than "half-empty".

Tonight's dinner was really yummy but I have no photos as we just wanted to hoe into it. I bought some lean lamb and cut it into cubes for skewering. Then I marinated it in:

mild chilli oil
lemon juice
garlic
freshly cracked black pepper
smoked paprika
cumin
parsley flakes (normally I'd use continental (flat leaf) parsley but didnt have any)

I skewered it with zucchini and spanish onion and WH bbqued it. It was really delicious. We had it with a salad made from: spinach leaves, roasted pumpkin, fat free sun dried tomato, low fat feta and toasted pine nuts (no dressing - it doesnt need any - trust me). I really should get myself organised to take some pics.

Well I'm signing off as I have a piece of lean pork that I'm marinating to make Chinese BBQued pork for tomorrow night's dinner. I'll be making Asian inspired stir fried veges with it and that too should be a lovely dinner.

Cheers all

Magda

YIPPEE ITS FRIDAY

I love Friday nights. Although tonight was far from ideal, its still been great. Tonight I'm goinjg to refelct back over my week and see how I went overall.

This week I have achieved a 90% success rate in eating lean, clean and to plan. Why 90%? Because I've had days where I havent eaten enough due to work being so busy. I havent gone off track but there have been 5-6 hour gaps between some meals and this has been totally out of my control.

Training wise my success rate is 100%. Today I made an executive decision to swap my allocated "day off from training" to Friday so that after a week of getting up at 5am I have some reprieve on the last day of the week. I will train on Sunday when I can do it at my leisure with more time available to me and not before the rest of the world comes to life.

My head space has been really good. Sure I've had a few moments where I felt inadequate and doubted my ability to do my new job but then I managed to put a few runs on the board and that helped to lift my spirits. Receiving a nice compliment from my Director yesterday also helped. For 2 days Wendy the Wino tried really hard to get me to seek stress relief from a glass or two of wine after work but I talked her down and today she was off hassling someone else (is she at your place Kek??)

I'm due to weigh and take measurements tomorrow and whilst a part of me is curious to know what the Metal Moster says, another part of me doesnt really care because I've ticked all the boxes and know that I'm moving in the right direction. Oh and one of the best things is ...we've actually got a fairly quiet weekend and after the week I've had, thats a real blessing.

Cheers all

Magda

SAYING NO TO WINE-RELIEF

Today I attended one of the ugliest and most difficult meetings in my several years of project management experience. This was a group of medium to high level professional people but the behaviour of a couple of individuals was appalling. I was not the subject of their attack (lord help me if it had been me) but I felt most uncomfortable being present to witness the goings-on. My Director (who was chairing this meeting) had her work cut out for her but she did a fabulous job of reigning in the situation and getting the meeting back on somewhat solid ground. I was shell-shocked afterwards.

I dont want my blog to be about work though so I will only say that another pressure day had me pining for that wine-relief which I so felt I deserved. But I didnt give in to Wendy the Wino and then I receieved a really encouraging email from Liz which helped to strengthen my resolve that little bit more. Tomorrow will test me even more as I have:

1. Unit lunch to farewell Miss R who's last day is tomorrow.
2. Farewell drinks after work for Miss R.
3. Friday night with WH where I like to have a wine while we chew the weekly fat.

So 3 occassions at which I'd like to drink. I think my pick will be a wine after work and then one with WH. The rest of the weekend will have to be dry.

Training is going well. Ticking off all my workouts.
Food is under control.
Sleep could be better but is not serious yet.
Emotionally I'm still in a good place despite the work challenges I'm facing.
Pretty happy with these things overall.

Cheers

Magda

FEELING THE PRESSURE

Hi all,

my date with blogger is very brief tonight. After a ridiculous day at work where I had several moments of "OMG what am I doing here?" or "OMG how am I ever going to get on top of ....insert any one of about 10 items.....?", I've just spent the last hour or so doing more work :-( And this is the bare minimum to keep me from going under tomorrow. EEEEEEGADS I'M FEELING THE PRESSURE NOW!!

So what has this meant for my get lean, toned and fit campaign?

1. I'm only managing 4 meals/snacks in a day. Either morning or afternoon tea just doesnt happen on these days.
2. I'm so busy I hardly ever think about food or even feel particularly hungry until its really time to eat and then I'm famished.
3. So far I havent craved junk food for comfort. AMAZING! Normally its the first thing I reach for. Maybe, just maybe there is hope for me yet.
4. In place of my junk food craving I'm really hanging out for wine as my "stess relief of choice". I havent given in but the voice of my "Wendy the Wino" is playing inside my head. Somebody turn that racket down!!

Oh and then send some reprieve so that I can stop for a breath and check wher I'm headed.

G'night all

Magda

MY PERFECT DAY

This morning as I was rushing around to drop BS at Before School Care, having gotten him upstairs to then walk back to the car to get his drink bottle, trek back upstairs to Before School Care with his drink bottle and then drive to the other side of the city to access my favouirite carpark before heading into a hugely busy day at work (phew I'm tired just writing all that)... I found a moment to dream about my perfect day. So because today was anything but my perfect day (just a few crappy things at work) I thought I'd blog "My Perfect Day".

Here goes .....

In my perfect day I would wake up around 7am and enjoy the morning hustle of getting my BS ready for school, having a nice healthy breakfast and time to shower and get organised for the day ahead. I would drop my son at school and have time to catch up and chat with the other mums and dads. I would volunteer to listen to the children read and to cut up fruit for their fruit time once or maybe twice a week. I would be a lot more involved with my son's schooling.

On the days that I wasnt volunteering at school I would be heading to the flashiest gym in lil ol Adelaide to meet my trainer who would work with me on my weight training sessions. Oh the luxury of just arriving and putting myself into their capable hands. I reckon I could find that extra ??% that meant I gave all my training sessions everything I had. Training would take up most of my morning as there is cardio to do and then showering and beauty routine before heading off for a healthy lunch with a friend or solo if my poor friends are stuck at work.

I would spend my afternoons either planning and preparing a nice dinner or having a massage or visiting my parents or pottering at home. Then it'd be time to pick my son up from school, head home and get that nice dinner happening. When my WH got home from work I'd be relaxed and happy and would even happily organise his beer or glass of wine (arent I accommodating!!). Imagine having a pleasant conversation instead of the exhausted exchange we struggle with now!! I love to catch up with blogs in the evening so I could do this and then also have time to read my favourite health and fitness magazines.

Oh .... you noticed there was no housework in there, no ironing, no gardening. Yep!! They have NO place in my perfect day. I dont mind doing washing. I enjoy cooking but you can keep the rest. After all this is my dream of a perfect day....and I dont even think its that lavish a lifestyle. Just stress free with time to do the things which are important to me.

Whats your idea of a perfect day?

Magda

KILLING TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE

Well despite it being Monday, I'm feeling pretty good emotionally. I mean how could I not after such a great result for my first week with Liz? Today I wore the same clothes as I did last Monday (for a reason) and they fitted better and I looked and felt better in them. It made me feel just that little bit better still.

My car went in for service today and I used the opportunity to walk from the service centre into work in the city and then back out again at the end of the day. It was about 1/2 hour each way and on the walk in I got a reasonable workout but on the way out I was held up by traffic lights and my heart rate didnt get high enough. Never mind. I was moving and thats a positive. I love killing 2 birds with one stone though.

Food continues to be good and why shouldnt it be? I'm not on any strict plan at this stage. My goal is to make good choices most of the time. To be consistent and to stay on an even keel emotionally. I even have the luxury of not having to log anything ... yet!!

There is only one small downer and that is I can feel a lurgy trying to take hold. I have a constant (mild) headache and have developed a bit of a chesty cough. Not feeling 100% but still far from "sick status". I think an earlier night with some Vitamin C before bed wont go astray.

Hope you all had a great weekend and are ready to take on the new week.

Cheers

Magda

PROGRESS

Excuse me folks but I must have this brag.

Since last Saturday I have dropped 3.5kgs and 12cms over 5 sites measured. Yes there are no typos there. You read those numbers correctly.

Mind you I know that about 2 - 2.5kgs was just bloat and this reflected in a 5cm drop in my waist measurement but I'm sure there was some fat melting away there too. One cannot help but be extremely happy with this result after a relatively easy first week with Coach. Now I have to prepare myself for a miniscule drop - if any - in the 2nd week. Nevertheless my goal of being sub 70kgs by Xmas Day is looking very doable.

Today we braved the cold and rain to watch the Xmas Pageant with our son. The things you do to make your kids happy LOL. I thought I was dressed warm enough but there was a cold wind blowing and all I can say is thank God BS was happy to sit and snuggle in my lap which helped to keep me warm.

After the pageant we raced home and WH and I went into overdrive to tidy and clean up as BS was having friends from school come over for a play. This was the first time and we didnt want the parents to see our home in its usual state of Saturday disarray LOL. The playdate went well and only after it was over did I have time to train. But train I did and then I had the pleasure of emailing Coach my great weekly result. That felt really good :-)

Food has been good and on track. I havent had any treats other than my 2 glasses of wine / week which I spaced out over last night and tonight. Me happy!!

Training all ok. Still working on fixing some postural issues but I appreciate how important that is. You cant build a fabulous structure on a shaky foundation.

Feeling great. BTW TTOM arrived in the early hours of today (I thought it was looming) which explains some of the stuff I was feeling yesterday. Today all is good and I'm not struggling with anything.

:-) Magda

WHY .....

Why is it that on a Friday near the end of the workday my mind automatically switches into the "gee I'd love a few glasses of wine and some nice nibbles (like roasted almonds, cheese and crackers or maybe one of those yummy chunky dips) and a relaxed dinner (read that: dirty food!!)?"

Why is it that on this same day I feel hungrier than usual which just gets my appetite firing?

Why is it that when I do eat my (clean) dinner, I feel like I could eat 3 x as much as usual?

Is TTOM around the corner?

Is my Inner Fat Girl (who right now is not so inner) trying to take control of the I Want to be Lean, Toned and Fit Girl?

That may be an affirmative to all of the above.

So I deal with this by:

1. Eating a raw carrot while I prepare dinner, as opposed to stuffing down Coon cheese, pretzels, nuts by the handful or whatever other rubbish I can get my hands on and

2. Telling the Inner Fat Girl to get the %&$* out of my life.

At the end of the day I'm so happy that I stayed in control, on plan and kept moving towards my goal.

Me happy!! So on that note its time to hit the sack.

M

FACING CHALLENGES AND WINNING

Faced a challenge today and WON!!

I was at a workshop this morning and had been quite hungry for some time. At 11am a huge platter of muffins, biscuits and warm Danish pastries filled with fruit and custard arrived for morning tea ... excuse me while I wipe my salivating mouth ....OMG I love this stuff!! So I got up and went to the toilet and by the time I got back the platter was at the other end of the table (breathing a huge sigh of relief). I got out my Slim Secrets bar and ate that instead. Thats one for me. Mind you the platter ended up back near me and then I had about 30 minutes of smelling the muffins but I kept telling myself "we're nearly finished and I can go soon". I hung on and didnt give in to the muffins.

I also had to buy a part of my lunch today and that can also be a risky situation for me as I set out planning to get healthy food but by the time I get to the shops I've convinced myself that its ok to have what I REALLY want which is usually something crappy instead. Not today. I chose the best looking salad (roasted vegetables with a yummy dressing that had a bit of fat in it) and had that with low fat cottage cheese and corn thins.

So on Day 3 I can report:

Food on track: tick
Training completed: tick
Cardio completed: tick
Feeling: even keeled emotionally and in control.

One more step closer to my goal.

I was going to write a thoughtful post of stuff going on inside my head but its late and I need to sleep.

Til tomorrow folks.

M

TARGET DATE: 20 SEPTEMBER 2009

Woohoo WNBF are more organised than I thought they'd be and the 2009 comp season is on their website. Now I just have to work out how to add a countdown thingy and I'm in business.

Day 2 (sounds funny doesnt it) went well. Incredibly busy at work but had all my planned meals close to the planned times and no off-plan extras. So nutrition is another tick.

Cardio: tick. Walking done as instructed by Coach.
Training: tick. Working on fixing some postural faults so we're not into the killer workouts ... yet!!

Feeling good still and expect to be this way for about 2 weeks. Then around the 3rd week I usually get a bit wobbly for a whole range of reasons. Fingers crossed that I deal with it better than I have before.

Oh BTW I set myself a mini-goal to lose 5kgs by Christmas. This is my first chunk and I'm not thinking beyond that now. I just have to work those kilos off one at a time and when 5 are gone then its time for my reward. In the meantime I have to think of a suitable reward.

:-) Magda

PS Blogger just told me that the countdown thingy is broken and cant be used til its fixed. At least I know where it is and will try it again soon.

IS IT TOO FAR OUT TO START A COUNTDOWN?

LOL!! Just joking. I think it is but it'd be very motivating wouldnt it?

Well things are rolling in terms of my journey to get lean, to build muscle and to learn some important lessons along the way.

Cardio for today? tick
Training Program done? tick
Nutrition targets achieved? tick
Feeling good? tick ... well feeling much better than I did over the weekend and yesterday as the reality of my very ugly starting pics and stats sunk in. If that wasnt a wake-up call then what is??

Thank you to everyone who left a lovely comment on my last post. Your enthusiasm and belief in me is really humbling. I have reflected many times over this last year and sadly there have been regrets about some of the choices I made. But I now feel that I can put that behind me and go for what I want in the best possible way.

:-) Magda

ATTENTION ALL

Well I cant keep this to myself any longer. You are looking at my Trainer Extraordinaire for the 2009 comp season. I have acknowledged that I cant do this alone. I need direction. I need expertise. I need support. I need accountability but most importantly I need to do it. Its time to stop dreaming about what I want and start doing what it will take to achieve it....albeit again. The past is history and its time to look forward.

If you read "My Story" from a few weeks ago (around mid October) you will know what I have been through in the last 12 or so months. Its been a tough year in terms of letting my eating get out of control and putting on a lot of weight. Couple that with training sporadically and shifting my focus to a 12km fun-run and I'm well and truly back around Square One as I begin my prep for the 2009 comp season.

Yes folks I'm aiming to get back into good enough shape to compete again in September 2009. I need to put muscle back on and tighten up my legs BIG TIME. I have a LOT of body fat to lose but I have time (and Liz) on my side. The journey is about to begin and I'm excited and nervous about the next 11 months. I DO NOT WANT TO FAIL!!!!! or should I say I WANT TO SUCCEED!!!!!

So here I am now a member of Team Fitness Solution and ready to make Liz proud of me and not let her down ... and not let myself down. So between Liz and the lovely Adelaide Figure Girls (hello Kerry and Cheryl) I'm hoping the path I have to travel will be made that little bit easier. I'm so blessed to have such great support. When I'm deep in misery and battling the lowest self esteem I can count on being lifted up by one of those special friends. (Thanks Kerry!!)

Cheers all

Magda

CATCH UP TIME

What have I been up to since I last blogged?

On Wednesday night my WH and I had a night out to see/hear http://www.paul-young.com/ and http://www.tony-hadley.com/start.html perform at the The Gov here in Adelaide. If you're a Paul Young or Spandau Ballet fan from the 80s this would have been your ideal heaven. It certainly was mine. Tony Hadley's voice, which was good when he sang in Spandau Ballet, has improved out of this world. It is just incredible and even WH commented on how great it was. They did a fantastic show performing many of their old hits and some really good covers. And you know the best thing?? We werent the oldest people there LOL!! In fact it was more like "spot the person UNDER 35!".

So the late night on Wednesday really threw me out of whack with my training. I didnt get up at 5 on Thursday as I was just too tired. Training in the evening wasnt going to work as we'd been to mum and dad's for dinner and then had a heap of stuff to get done at home. I was still really tired on Friday morning and struggled getting up at 6.30 let alone 5.

Nutrition has been more "relaxed" than I've been aiming for in the last couple of weeks. Eating out on Wednesday night, toast for breakfast on Thursday, some small cakes at an official opening I was attending on Thursday morning, more bread at lunch time (didnt have a healthy meal packed) and then pizza at mum and dad's that night. Yesterday was still not back on track so the weight has spiked up again (it doesnt take much) and needs some serious commitment to get it down and keep it going down.

I would have liked a nice clean start to November today but its been hard to muster the strength to get 100% clean again (or at least 80% would be reasonable). Never mind I will not give up trying.

My next post will have an announcement that I have been keeping under my belt for a few weeks. But the time has come to reveal all.

Good night all

Magda

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE IN BETWEEN

Hi all,

So what was good today?

Training!! After a day off track I usually find that my overall motivation wavers, the excuses take over and training gets ditched. It almost happened this morning until Ireminded myself of the feel-good endorphins that would flood my body when I finished my training session. I did legs and abs as planned and it was just the right start to the day.

And what was bad?

My difficult HR issue at work took an unexpected turn for the worse. I'm now in a bad situation which could impact negatively on my personal life. I cant see a way out but have made time to speak to somebody about it before I take action. I'm hoping that an impartial viewpoint will help me find the right answer. Its eating away at me and at one stage today I could feel my stomach physically churning over this. (Fingers crossed that the churning was the worry worms feasting on my body fat - LOL)

So that leaves the in-between .....

Food today was OK. After an over-eating bonanza like yesterday I think the best remedy is to eat clean but only eat when you are hungry. If its a normal meal time but there are no signs of hunger then wait. When your body wants food, then feed it rather than stuffing more in when it clearly doesnt need it. I know some people disagree with this and advocate "just get back to normal eating as soon as possible" but I find myself eating out of habit then , rather than hunger. Anyway thats my opinion ... for what its worth. So food was OK as we all ate the same dinner tonight (unheard of in our household!!) which was lean beef meatballs, tomato and vegetable based sauce with pasta and a little parmy cheese. I kept my pasta serve very small and WH and I also had a large fresh tossed salad. Not too bad me thinks and BS ate pretty much the same as us so that was big win.

I guess the best thing about today was that despite the slip-up yesterday and despite the stress of my work issue, I DIDNT resort to eating more junk for whatever stupid reason. That is a big step forward for me :-)

Cheers all

Magda

MISSION ABORTED

I wasnt going to blog today. It wasnt a good day and I just wanted to sulk but I've decided to be a big girl, come clean and deal with it. Bare with me if I sound like an immature twit. I'm trying to find my way back to lean, fit and happy and its a winding road that I must travel.

I've decided that daily weighing is NOT for me. As much as that piece of metal just reflects numbers that have some questionable meaning, my relationship with those numbers is generally NOT positive. Especially when I have such high expectations for weight loss and am impatient for results. Numbers going up JUST DO MY HEAD IN.

So after 3 interludes with the scales I've decided to abort my experiment and go back to a weekly weigh around Thursday or Friday (NEVER on a Monday unless the weekend has been 100% perfectly clean). After reporting my fantastic one kilo loss last Thursday, on Friday I was back up .1 or .2. Why?? Dont know. So I weighed Sunday morning and I'm up some more and then another kilo during the day on Sunday (this I fully expected as my weight goes up during the course of a day). But this morning it was up again so you know that kilo I had lost ... well HELLO its back.

Now you deal with this, a difficult HR situation at work, feeling cold and tired, work falling behind due to staff absences and a family issue thats really bugging me and you have my perfect recipe for a bad eating day. Enough said.

Lessons learnt:

1. Weigh once a week and deal once with your feelings about the result of the weigh-in.

2. When the forecast is for cool weather DO NOT take a salad for lunch. Have something clean and healthy that can be heated up so you dont need to go and buy kung po chicken with stir fried noodles for lunch.

3. Accept that you cant be perfect at work. You wont get everything done on time or get it right the first time. Do your best and nobody should complain.

4. With the family stuff, either take it on 100% or drop it and resolve to not get into it. Stewing over it is wasted energy. You cant change people or force your values or beliefs on them. Different people have different priorities and perhaps its better to just accept that (even if you believe they are doing the wrong thing).

So now I've got all that cr*p off my chest I'll get my training gear ready for tomorrow morning and have an early night. If you're still with me ... thanks for listening :-)

Cheers

Magda

EXPERIMENTINMG

Wow today has been a full-on day - half of it spent lunching at my friend's house LOL

But there was training to do this morning and I pushed myself to increase the weights on most of my exercises. Small steps towards getting stronger but I'm moving in the right direction. After my upper body weights I did 30 minutes on the exercise bike and burned a few calories. After yesterday's disappointing run/walk this extra cardio today was just what I needed. Happy, happy after that.

WH asked if I'd mind being the driver today reminding me that "you wont want to drink much anyway, will you?" So how could I say no? Because I dont want to drink much so its only fair I drive and let him have a few. It was a good arrangement because after 2 slow wines I switched to water and was ok with that.

Lunch was really nice but oh so not clean. I made the best choice I could and ate a moderate amount. Normally I'd just hoe into anything and everything and have way too much so I was really pleased with how I handled it. Then as a treat I had a slice of my friend's home-made carrot and walnut cake with a thick layer of frosting on it. And I enjoyed every mouthful with absolutly no guilt.

I knew I'd done ok at the lunch when by around 6pm I was feeling hungry again and I could have a light dinner, instead of feeling so stuffed that you dont need food for the next 6-7 hours.

I've decided to do an experiment this week just because I'm curious as to what it will reveal. For 7 days I plan to weigh myself twice a day - when I wake up in the morning and before I go to bed at night. I'm under the strictest instructions to myself to NOT let any numbers do my head in. I just want to see what they do over a week to help me understand how they fluctuate in normal everyday life. I'm not sure I want to blog my weight (its emabrassingly high!!) but I will report on what the scale numbers are doing for those people who might be interested.

So its bedtime soon and I will check my sacle weight to see how much it goes up during a day. I'm expecting about 1-2kgs up from this morning, on a pretty average amount of food.

Good night all

Magda

TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT

Well yesterday's challenges feel like they are a world away now. Had a few today but decided to just chill out and stop analysing everything to the nth degree.

You see yesterday mum gave me some food that she knows I really like. I put it in the frij as I wasnt intending to eat it as its not exactly on my plan. But then I had a really busy morning out and about and was very hungry by the time I got to have my (late) lunch. So there was this meal in the frij just needing to be warmed up and eaten. What did I do?

I ate it. And even though it wasnt to plan (its a meal thats just about 100% carbs and there are no veges with it) I had some protein before hand and stopped fretting about it. And the best thing was that after I'd eaten it, life went on as normal. I didnt have any thoughts of "oh well I've blown my diet so I may as well eat whatever I want for the rest of the day", which always turns into an all-out binge-fest. Yep I ate off plan and didnt use it as an excuse to binge afterwards. Thats a win for me!!

For some reason, cardio today was a hard slog. I did it but it didnt feel like one of my better efforts. My legs felt heavy and tired and I seemed to drag myself through it. I'm looking forward to training upper body tomorrow and if I feel better I'll add some moderate intensity cardio as a bit of a top up.

We are off to a friend's place for lunch tomorrow so that'll be a BIG challenge. Oh the temptations of alcohol, nibbles, dessert just to name a few. Give me strength to not succumb into a big downward slide into slothdom and gluttony once again.

G'night all

Magda

CHALLENGES, CHALLENGES AND MORE CHALLENGES

OK so guess how today was?

Here's a snapshot:

6.30am: (Unplanned) meeting with the scales. Grrrr!! Up .2 for no reason whatsoever. My reaction?? ANNOYED!! Should never have gotten on them. Now I have to keep telling myself that it is just a normal fluctuation and it'll even out if I stay on track. I have this conversation with myself over and over during the day. Desperate to not just blow it coz whats the point!!

At work: Our admin assistant phones in sick ... AGAIN. She's been at work 1 day this week. There is a stack of important correspondence that MUST get out that she hasnt got to. We are a small agency so there isnt an abundance of other staff to call on so I spend the day correcting letters, printing on letterhead, indexing, photocopying, enveloping etc etc. Every bit of technology I approached played up and because I dont do these tasks in the normal course of my work, you could call me "administratively challenged". It was a trying time. And what does that mean?? I WANT COMFORT FOOD!!!!!

By lunch time I'm really hanging out for a glass of wine and I contemplate picking up a bottle and sharing it with one of my staff who has done an admirable job in helping me. I agonise over this for hours but eventually make a firm decision to NOT do it. Why?? Because I dont want to be seen as some-one who turns to drink at trying times. This could then become a standing invite to go drinking which is something I just dont want to get into. So I skip the early interlude with alcohol.

During my venture out at lunch time I'm almost salivating for a cake. I even detour so that I walk right past some cake shops and I linger so I can take in all the wonderful produce that I just want to stuff down. KEEP GOING MAGDA. KEEP GOING. DO NOT STOP TO BUY SOMETHING. YOU'LL REGRET IT. I pick up a Diet Coke on the way back to work.

The afternoon is a bit quieter and eventually I'm the only one in the office. Hmm ... what could I eat??? Chips from the charity box, corn thins with butter, maybe I could duck out and pick something up????? OR MAYBE I COULD JUST GET ON WITH SOME MORE WORK AND FORGET ABOUT FOOD. I survive the afternoon eithout food as I ate my snack before I went out so as not to face the temptations feeling hungry.

By the time I got home I had so many wins under my belt that it wasnt hard at all to limit myself to 2 glasses of wine, a moderate amount of raw peanuts (in their shells) and a very yummy and healthy dinner.

So today I felt like I ran a 100m hurdle race with so many obstacles to get over but I made it. I may not have been the fastest but I didnt fall over and thats a great feeling. Phew I'm tired after all that.

G'night all

Magda

-1 ....

..... kilo this week. Yippee :-) I’m starting to notice small changes for the better and this is encouraging. I can’t wait til more of my clothes fit. My wardrobe is so limited because I hate shopping when I’m fatter. Clothes never look or feel as good and I keep telling myself that the fatness is temporary so why waste money on stuff that soon won’t fit me. Sometimes the “soon” is not as soon as I’d like but my thinking never changes. So fatter = limited wardrobe.

I especially can’t wait to fit back into my nice jeans. I think they are a (largish) size 11 but I love how they look and feel on. The only jeans I have now are just FUGLY but they were bought in desperation when I reluctantly had to spend money on a bigger pair. I will happily donate them to a worthy charity as soon as I can.

Knocked off my legs and abs session nicely this morning with some increases in weights and/or reps on all exercises. I’m having some postural issues, which are making some exercises more challenging than usual. Nothing that can’t be worked around or fixed I’m sure, so I’m not stressing about it. I’m just making allowance for all this in the interim.

Food continues to be good. Getting very low on veges at home but Saturday is the big replenishment day. The fridge will be groaning then with almost 2 weeks supply stuffed in there. I love a fridge full of veges when there is variety galore and meals are that much more interesting. WH gets a bit tired of salads so its good to be able to offer a few different types.

This Saturday I’ll venture back to Australian Muscle to buy my must-have supps. I haven’t been there since a year ago so I bet they’ll be surprised to see me. I went to school with Kim (the owner) and I feel proud going there because it makes a positive statement about the life I’ve chosen. Back in my high school days nobody would have thought that one day I’d be a figure competitor. I love surprising people or proving them wrong.

Roll on Friday and the weekend.

Cheers

Magda

OVER THE HUMP

There's something just a little delicious about Wednesday evening - and no its not a secret dessert that I'm devouring LOL - as we get over that weekly hump. Woohoo. Lets enjoy the downhill slide into the weekend.

Tracking well this week despite challenges I've written about in earlier posts. I spent this morning chained to my desk preparing reports for our new CE. As I'm still a relative newbie in this job, it took me ages to find all the information and pull it together. I finished just ahead of my deadline only to find another (blasted) template requiring another lot of reporting. EEEEEEEK. Copy. Paste. Copy. Paste. Edit. Submit. However I did make time to eat my morning snack - multigrain corn thins, low fat cottage cheese and snow peas from our garden. But by lunchtime I needed to get out, breath fresh air and MOVE.

This morning's training was cardio and I did my favourite session of walking one song and then jogging one song. This is so easy to maintain for a longer time as I dont get bored or too worn out or too cruisy. By the end of 45 minutes I feel like I've worked quite hard but if I had to go for an hour I certainly could. Tomorrow is lower body + abs and then I get a sleep in on Friday.

Gee I'm a bit lost for what else to post so rather than waffle on about nothing I'll bid you all good night.

Cheers

Magda

FROM CRANKY TO HAPPY

If there's one thing I hate, its when work interferes with your health and fitness goals. I mean, just having to show up 5 days a week takes such a big chunk of time out of your life. Time when you could be doing important things like training and preparing healthy and nutritious food. To fit everything in like travel, a decent work day and more travel, we leave at 7.30 in the morning and often get home around 6 in the evening. So to fit training in around this, I'm up at 5 and then in bed by 10 (on most nights). This is hardly my "ideal life" but seeing as this affords me my nice lifestyle, I better suck it up and just make it work.

Why this whingy post?? Because today I was in back-to-back-meetings from 9.30 til 1pm. I had 2 bites of a Musashi SLM bar around 11 am and that was all since breakfast at 7am. So how did I feel at 1pm? Very cold. Beyond hunger - I'm sure my stomach was digesting itself LOL. And cranky!!

I'm actually not cranky now - believe it or not - but I wanted to get this off my chest and share my gripe with you all.

Now onto the happier side of my life. I trained upper body this morning and had the lovely leaden arms feeling at the end of it. Will likely have some chest DOMS again as that is where I get it the most. Food has been good (apart from too long without it) and I'm currently enjoying lots of tabbouli, legumes, diet yogurt, low fat cottage cheese and snow peas, amongst other nice stuff. My protein intake would be moderate and carbs a little higher than ideal for body fat loss but I'm not getting all strict and hung up on it now. There'll be time for that down the track LOL.

Head space is good so success is likely to follow.

:-) Magda

CHANGING THOUGHTS - CHANGING ACTIONS

Instead of making today's post one of "I did this" and "I did that", I wanted to write about stuff going on inside my head cause we all know that is what instigates our actions, be they good or bad.

OK: Training this morning: I was really tired from lack of sleep and I lay in bed for about 2 minutes before getting up. What spurred me on to get up? It was the thought of taking another step and continuing to move forward. Just get up, get dressed and do some cardio. Once I'm out there, all is good. I LOVE cardio. I did 45 minutes of alternating from one song power-walking then 2 songs jogging. Good level of intensity without being really full on and enjoyable too. So what was I thinking at the end of it? Gee I'm glad I did that and didnt give in to sheer laziness.

A couple of times at work today the pressure was on and I was feeling a bit like I was racing against the clock and I wouldnt make it. These are my danger times where I almost automatically reach for the junky comfort food. Aha!! Time for a new thought pattern. I had a little talk with myself. Stop. Breath. Think this through and then act on it, no matter how small a thing you do. The answer will come to you and it wont be in the bottom of the paper bag holding the cake or biscuits. I shifted my focus from the stress I was dealing with to finding a solution and stopped entertaining thoughts of how much better I'd feel if I just had that cake or those biscuits.

Right now this is all a conscious effort that I have to work at. Often I have to stop, think things through, challenge my old beliefs/excuses/justifications and make a decision to act differently than I have in the past. But thats ok because these are just more small steps in the long journey I have ahead of me. The time will come when these actions become semi-automatic and I'll know deep down how far I've come :-)

G'night all

Magda

WEEKEND ACHIEVEMENTS

Just doing a quick end-of-weekend check in as its late and I need to sleep.

Adelaide Figure Girls caught up for brunch today and had a fantastic 2 and 1/2 hour gossip session talking all things training, dieting and competing. With the season over everyone was eating and really enjoying the food. (My breakfast was a bit ordinary but the company was great).

Last night we had SIL + BIL over for a casual dinner of jerk chicken done on the webber. What a clean and healthy taste sensation that is. I also made corn bread but didnt have any myself. Just had chicken and salad with some strawberries and low fat vanilla ice cream for dessert. Limited myself to one beer (only on a hot day!!) and one glass of wine then had heaps of soda with lemon in it.

So at the end of the weekend I have achieved:

1. All planned training. cardio yesterday and lower body + abs training today. Woohoo - I get Friday morning off as a reward.

2. A very moderate intake of alcohol considering we had company for dinner last night. Very happy with my efforts there.

3. Good choices made for all of my meals and I never overate to the point of feeling really stuffed. Whilst I'm certainly not dieting, I know that I'm eating quite well and the weight should come off slowly.

4. Feeling good about what I'm doing and just enjoying life. I have devoted a reasonable amount to time to playing with my BS and its been a lot of fun. He is growing up so quickly that I fear the time will soon come when he wont want to have much to do with me at all.

Cheers all

Magda

FRIDAY HIGHDAY

Heehee what a funny title but it describes very well how I feel.

This week I lost 2.3kgs. Now before you all cheer, this is normal for me. In the first week of clean eating after a bit of an indulgent time, I drop this amount easily. Its mainly water, bloat etc but I feel smaller and less bloaty so thats what counts - not the number on the scale.

Work was madly, crazy busy but I'm slowly starting to put the many pieces of the puzzle together and am feeling on top of (at least some) things there. I've not had many moments like this up til now so things are looking up. Having said all that, I've tried hard to not get stressed, overwhelmed or frustrated by work as those emotions often have me running for comfort food and when I start, I just cant get enough of it.

Training has been to plan. A mix of weights and cardio and a day off today. My plan is to train Saturday to Thursday and then have Friday off. After a week of getting up at 5, its nice to not set my alarm on a Friday. Its like a treat at the end of the week. The lower body DOMS has eased off and the upper body DOMS is mild. All ready for a cardio session tomorrow morning.

But the best thing about my day was tonight.

Normally WH and I would get home from work and we would open a bottle of wine or even worse, have drinks before opening the wine. The nibbly snacks would come out - (lots of) nuts, sometimes a small packet of chips, maybe cheese and crackers, rarely anything in moderate proportions. And we hoe into these with our drinks and chat away. Then we have dinner and continue on the wine. Sometimes dinner is clean and healthy but often its not and I ALWAYS eat til I'm really full. I've never logged these meals but I'm sure I would cringe at the calories, fat and alcohol consumed.

So why was tonight great?

I limited myself to 2 glasses of wine. 1 before dinner and one with my meal. WIN

Before dinner I had a small amount of raw peanuts in the shell. Cleaning them made me eat MUCH less than just shovelling in nuts by the handful. WIN

Dinner was superbly lean, clean and healthy: swordfish kebabs marinated in a little olive oil, lemon juice, continental parsly, oregano, cumin, smoked paprika and garlic. Then skewered with red onion, red capsicum and zucchini. Served with a tzatziki style sauce made with low fat natural yogurt, finley chopped cucumber, coriander and garlic. I also made my own tabbouli as I had continental parsly growing like mad which needed picking. My tabbouli was dressed just with freshly squeezed lemon juice. It was all really delicious and healthy too. WIN

And finally, I ate 2 of my kebabs with all the accompaniments and was satisfied so I left the last one for lunch tomorrow. Can you believe it???

My goodness, I may just have it in me to get this eating thing right!!

Cheers all

Magda

THE FIRST FEW STEPS

So you all know that I've had a difficult year. I havent won many of the struggles I've faced. My actions have not aligned with my goals. My headspace has just been SCREWED for a lot of the time. But deep down I knew that the tide would turn, the burning desire would be back and that once again I would be moving towards the things I want to achieve. Not just to compete again but other personal things too.

Quietly and without anyone knowing, I was making enquiries about how best to achieve my gaol when the right time came (City 2 Bay had to be done first as that also was an important goal for me). I thought about things over and over and am really happy with my upcoming plan.

I acknowledge that once again I have a long journey ahead of me. There is a lot of body fat to be burnt off before I'm lean enough to stand confidently on stage. There is literally tons of weights to be lifted before my muscles return and hopefully, surpass their previuos size. There is a lot of emotional work to be done to change my beliefs about myself, my thinking about food and diet, my handling of stress, boredom, frustration and other negative emotions. But deep down I know its time to change and I've accepted that and have already started to do some small things differently.

After coming back from holidays I found it hard to get my diet back in order. A few more days of poor food choices and too little exercise saw the scales register my 2nd all time highest weight (a smidge off my highest ever which was after 3 months of overseas travel and eating ANYTHING I wanted).

But then last Saturday the brakes went on and my eating has been pretty good. I'm not weighing or measuring food and I'm not recording or tracking everything I eat. I'm just making better choices at each meal and snack time. I'm drinking enough water and have cut right back on the alcohol. I've trained every day since Sunday alternating cardio with weights and just alternating a brisk walk with a walk/jog session. Weights is just lower body and upper body work for 3 sessions a week. I have SERIOUS lower body DOMS (again!!). Small steps to begin a long journey. But as long as I keep taking them I know I'll make it.

WH is on my side and that means a lot to me. We had a great honest discussion while on holidays and I'm feeling positive about the year of prep I have ahead of me. Things may go a bit skewiff as the comp gets closer but deep down I know its all good and we will be fine. I have a couple of small details to sort out over the next week or 2 and then its all systems go in November.

Eleven months and counting. I hope you enjoy sharing my journey with me.

Cheers

Magda

MY STORY - PART 5

So this is where I am now. As heavy (+ about 2 kgs) as I was before I started prepping in November 2006. Its hard to tell but I'm sure I've lost a fair bit of the muscle I worked so hard to build as well. Hello Square One!

Cut to October 2009 .......

........ she wakes in excitement and anticipation, feels the ripples across her torso "yep they're still there". She jumps out of bed. The day has finally arrived. Lets get it underway. Shower, breakfast and then the first coat of dream tan. Luuurve the smell of dream tan.

At the venue its registration time and then drug testing before some down time. Doing hair and make-up is such fun. After 30 years of experience there's no need to have them done by somebody else. Her helper/trainer arrives and its time to put on the itsy bitsy glitzy bikini. More tan is required and lets not forget about the all important carb loading. Then its time to pump, pump and pump some more. Looking good. Good condition. All the hard work over the last 11 months has paid off.

She thinks back over her 11 month journey. Smiles at all the 5am starts and outdoor training even through the thick of winter. Chuckles at some of her crazy training sessions. Breathes a sigh of relief that diet wise it wasnt actually THAT hard. She has come a long way. Life is more even-keeled. The frequent and severe binging from previous times is fading into a distant memory. "woohoo woohoo oo I've got a new attitude" she sings to herself.

Its finally time to step onto the stage. As she comes into the audience's view she smiles like she's never smiled before coz the time has come to SHINE. Relaxed pose. Front symmetry pose. Quarter turn. Side symmetry pose. Chest pose. Triceps pose. Quarter turn. Back symmetry pose. Back double biceps. Quarter turn. Side symmetry pose. Chest pose. Triceps pose. Quarter turn. Front symmetry pose. Front double biceps pose. Ab and thigh pose. Relaxed pose. Shuffle competitors around and do it all again then file off. Routine time and its perfect. All of those hours of practice have paid off. Feeling great and having a ball.

All competitors file back on and the announcement is made. Third place. Second place. And the winner of the WNBF 2009 Miss Fit Body Masters is ......


.... well I think you know what my 2009 goal is.

The End.

BTW Its not actually my goal to win. Its my goal t0 get back into good enough shape to be able to compete again and I think I've got the right approach for how best to achieve it.

MY STORY - PART 4

Post comp.

I was completely aware of the pitfalls that many competitors face after the comp season is over. The urge to eat anything and everything. The feelings of being lost with no direction. Maybe feeling tired, moody, emotional. Probably others that I havent listed. So I was prepared for all this. You know, indulge a bit, ease off, keep doing some exercise (but not like comp prep), retain many of the good habits formed over the last year.

So what happened?

The wheels fell off for me some time in November. When the urge to refeed struck, it just took over my life. Having what I hadnt had for so long was heaven when I ate it but hell when I started to gain weight. And boy did I gain weight. And with every kilo gained back, I became less confident, less motivated, less happy and caught in a negative downward spiral.

Over the year I made various attempts to rectify my situation but I just couldnt put my car into gear, get it going and keep it moving for any length of time. I stopped and started so many times that I may as well have just parked the car and not worried about trying to move forward. To rub salt into the wound (or maybe it was sugar and fats LOL) every time my car stopped moving, I would gain a bit more weight. Over and over again.

I have analysed myself the nth degree and here are some of the issues which challenge me at these times:

1. I have a "sin now - pray later" attitude. You know, "a little bit wont hurt" or "never mind, I'll diet tomorrow" or "I'll work this off tomorrow". But for what I ate at times, NO amount of praying was going to stop it from making me fatter.

2. The heavier I got the more my thinking went towards "well I'm fat anyway so having ???? wont make much difference". No it wont Magda, just another kilo and then another. Thats not much difference, is it?

3. And I'm an "all or nothing" person. So a bit of treat food automatically becomes a lot of treat food. And when you add points 1 and 2 into the equation, well the recipe for failure is pretty much set.

4. Finally I must confess that I enjoy a drink, or 3-4. And with those drinks I enjoy "nibbly snack foods" like nuts, chips, cheese and crackers etc. (I'm almost drooling as I write this LOL). Oh and after a long, hard week at work (coz I work in the salt mines you know LOL) I DESERVE them.

You see where I'm coming from....

2008 just wasnt going to be my year. Sometimes your head just isnt in the right place and mine was certainly revelling in "Fat Girl Paradise" where it was determined to eke out a nice existence. My body followed and yep all the hard work of last year was undone. No point crying over spilt milk. There is only one way to fix this broken thing and achieve some of my remaining goals.

To be continued...

Magda

MY STORY - PART 3

Well as you probably already know, I made it to the stage in October last year. The road to get me there was very bumpy. I fell off the wagon so many times but I never gave up. Those words "make it count" were always there to spur me on, along with my own determination to succeed. I loved competing. I loved tanning up and doing my make-up and hair. I had no idea about how I should look on the day. I just followed Josh's instructions and pumped up like crazy and I think I came up OK. Being on stage was just the best experience. I remember being nervous before going on but once up there I was smiling ... NO .... I was BEAMING!!

I competed in WNBF and being its first year last year the comp was pretty small. I won first place in both Figure Novice and Figure Masters. Lucky me!! I went to the Nationals, for the experience and am so glad I did. It wasnt as much fun as Adelaide but I finally met the lovely Deb (Splice) and Miss Tank, who cheered for me like mad. In Sydney for the Nationals there was a major turning point for me. You see my comp prep had caused some problems at home. WH didnt share my passion for it, in fact quite the opposite. In that sense it had been a very difficult time. But in Sydney, standing outside our hotel, waiting for our taxi to take us to the show, my WH said to me "next time we'll do this better" (referring the dumpy hotel we were staying in).

WOOHOO he was now on my side. Life would be so much better. He confirmed this on Xmas Day when he told me that he would support me the next time I wanted to compete because he could see how much I loved it and that I wanted to do it again. I could not wait for 2008 to begin so I could continue my journey.

To be continued...

Magda

MY STORY - PART 2

So there I was - the woman who had dieted, lost and regained weight more times than I could ever possibly count throughout my life - taking on one of my life's biggest challenges. But there was a fire in my belly and a very quiet determination to succeed. I had looked at my wonderful and charmed life and realised that I had rarely been tested. But along with never being tested was a feeling that I had never "achieved" either. Being over 40 and realising that I didnt have another 20 or so years to think about it, I decided that I wasnt going to die wondering "what if".

However 2006 wasnt to be my year. Not long after I had made the decision to compete in Figure, circumstances had us preparing to move back to Adelaide (much to my delight). With the move likely to be in September I knew that I couldnt handle the dieting, training and orgainising everything needed for the move (including selling our Brisbane house and buying a house in Adelaide). Com prep went on the backburner. The time was not right.

But I used the time to research how I would train for the comp. From reading all the blogs I had a reasonable idea of what was required but I didnt want to go it alone. So based on the outstanding work he had done with Deb (Splice), Lia, Alicia, Katie (Spartze) and others, I chose Josh Dickinson (Physique Essentials) to train me. Before signing on with Josh and committing the money for the training , my WH made one profound comment to me. "Make it count" and those words often kept me going through the tougher times (of which there were many).

So in November 2006 I began my journey with Josh and what a ride it was. I can honestly say that it was a rollercoatser ride of emotions, energy levels, training intensity and commitment to dieting. There were highs and there were lows. There were tears and there were celebrations. There was a real love / hate happening but I was hooked. I even rememeber a few months into the prep (I prepped for 11 months in total) loving it so much that I had already set some long term competing goals and I hadnt even been on stage once.

Oh to just get up on stage .....

To be continued.

Magda

MY STORY - PART 1

Its a mad, crazy time around September/October with all the comps happening and I'm in a wierd place emotionally - you know - not part of the comps - assessing where I'm at, where I want to be and how I can get there. So I thought I'd take a bit of a stroll down memory lane and share with you my story of why I wanted to compete.

I've been blessed with a very fortunate and wonderful life. I have no bad childhood memories or experiences that would have scarred me for life. There were no silly rules or beliefs that instilled bad habits into me (you know like "finish up everything on your plate coz there are children starving in Africa"). I just had a good healthy appetite and I wasnt "gifted" when it came to sports. Warning. Warning. Potential recipe for weight problems.

And thats just what happened. I ate lots and didnt do (hardly) any sports. By 12 years of age I was a "big girl". Not necessarily fat but certainly large and very well developed. So not long after that I tried my first diet and that began the roller coaster ride of losing and gaining weight over and over and over again .... you get my drift.

OK cut to 2005. WH and I were moving to Brisbane. He was getting a fantastic promotion and all our moving costs were going to be paid for. I would take leave without pay from my government job and would upgrade my qualifications and work as a PT. (I had been an aerobics instructor since my late 20s). "Hmmm I better get in good shape again" I thought so I entered the Body Blitz 12 Week Challenge and started it just before I left Adelaide in January 2005. Over the Challenge I lost about 8kgs and was looking MUCH better (72kgs - 64kgs). But life in a new city was tough. I wasnt working as BS was 2 years old and I didnt have access to childcare initially. I was studying whenever I could. I knew no-one except my ILs who lived 40kms away. It was stinking hot and our new house didnt have air conditioning. I spent my days .... ??? ... looking after our son and studying (if possible). I trained at home as I had no gym membership and I had very little time in which to fit it in.

In my loneliness and boredom I discovered the internet (I hadnt been into computers at all before then) and would look at the Ideal Bodies Online website. This led me to Sue Heintze's blog and then other blogs from there. I became a lurker and during 2005 I followed various blogs of figure competitors. I read everything. I was fascinated. I was shocked. I was amazed. I was HOOKED. I started to wonder whether I could do it myself (having just lost 8kgs). Deep down I wanted to give it a go.

It took me ages to get up the courage to take the leap and call INBA to enquire about competing. Sadly I regained quite a bit of my lost weight in the meantime but that didnt deter me. I told WH about my dream (cant remember his initial reaction) and I called Lorraine Pacullio (not sure if thats spelt right) to help me get started.

When I attended one of Lorraine's posing practice sessions on the Sunshine Coast I met a girl called Cathy who was competing in the 2006 INBA Female Only show on the Gold Coast in 4 (or so) weeks time. She was doing physique. Well I could not believe how good she looked in her tank top and little denim skirt. Very lean with the most beautful arms and LEGS TO DIE FOR.

I was going to get me some of that. I knew I would have to train like a trojan and diet like I'd never dieted before but I had a vision, a dream and I was going for it.

To be continued...

Magda

POST HOLIDAY BLUES

Well the fantastic holiday is over.

On the Sunshine Coast it was warm - hot and sunny. In Adelaide its absolutely arctic.

On holiday I slept in nearly every day. Today my alarm went off at 5.30am (and I didnt get up to train because I was tired after a very late night and it was freezing cold).

On holiday I exercised when I felt like it (which was on most days). Now its early mornings when its cold and I dont want to get up.

I'm overdue for a trim and colour. Feeling ugly.

The scales are screaming a horrible number at me. Feeling fat.

But every cloud has a silver lining ..... watch this space.

Magda

HOLIDAY TIME

We leave for Queensland tomorrow morning. Gold Coast first for a friend's wedding then onto the Sunshine Coast. Yippee!!

I tried on some of my shorts tonight. Boohoo. Either too tight or just dont fit at all. (I'm not surprised). Packing was a challenge. Not happy Jan!!

Its late and time to get some sleep. We have an early start tomorrow.

Cheers all

Magda

SOME SMALL RELIEF

Today I could walk down stairs without grimacing in agony. Progress!!

I got up early to row BUT WH also got up earlier than usual so I had to cut my row short. Had I known he'd be up that early I wouldnt have made the effort for so little return. Grrrr!!

As I was walking to my car after work I started to think about getting BBQ chicken and chips for dinner. Our local chicken shop makes the BEST chips.... and their chicken is good too. WH was going to the soccer and there'd just be me and BS home tonight. I was starting to really crave it. I could almost taste it. Mentally I was licking my lips savouring how delicious I knew it would be.

Then I started to think about my next goal and how I've had a good week, eating wise. I thought about all the times where I'd convinced myself that the cheat meal/ junk food etc was justifiable. I thought about where that behaviour had gotten me and all of a sudden that chicken and chips didnt appeal so much.

So I compromised and decided to just get the chicken, take the skin off and have it with my already prepared green veges. Yep that was a good compromise.

So what did I actually do??

The traffic through the city was so slow that I ended up taking ages to get home. Mum and Dad were minding BS at our house so I felt obliged to get home asap and let them go home to have their dinner. Yes folks. I completely skipped the chicken and chips. I heated up my veges with a can of tuna with beans, added my freshly chopped continental parsley and voila!! a healthy meal that also felt like a bit of a treat (I love the Sole Mare tuna with beans - its so delicious!!).

There was a small treat that mum had made and brought over - but nothing as deadly as a killer serve of greasy, salty chips. Maybe there is hope for me yet??

Cheers all

Magda

DOMS IS STILL IN THE HOUSE

Day 2 post C2B and my legs are still really sore. One of my meetings today involved inspecting plant rooms, chillers and boilers which meant walking down steps, walking down more steps and then when I thought I couldnt walk down any more steps .... guess what?? I had to walk down more steps. My quads were screaming and I'm still wobbly overall after a period of sitting down.
I am suffering, I tell you.

So training of any form has been non-existent today. Mind you I walked heaps to various meetings and other stuff. I didnt feel idle at all. I have decided that I will row tomorrow morning. That shouldnt be too hard on my legs and my upper body could use the work. Plus a bit of cardio never goes astray in my opinion.

Once again food has been good. My vege intake is up as we are going on holidays soon and there were quite a few veges that needed finishing before we go. Seeing as I hate to throw good food out, I did a big stir fry in chicken stock and am well and truly seeing green for both lunch and dinner. I'm sure my system will thank me :-)

So I'm still considering some factors around my next goal. Last night I was thinking stuff through before I went to sleep. Now I have more info, I have more thinking. I'll just have to be careful that I dont lose too much precious sleep time.

Good night all

Magda

PS My official time (as printed in The Advertiser today) was 1:26:19. I was quicker than I thought!! LOL

CITY 2 BAY - THE DAY AFTER

I gave myself the morning off from training today. Anything involving lower body was not a good option and with less than a week til we go away for 10 or so days, there is no point in diving into an upper body weights routine. That can start after the holiday is over and I can train with some consistency.

So I had a small sleep in and was pleasantly surprised that I was moving ok when I got up. Lo and behold this did not last as by mid-late morning my legs were getting very sore and were seizing up badly after periods of sitting. In fact I ended up with one of the WORST cases of leg DOMS I can recall. At one stage I had to walk down 2 large flights of stairs after sitting in a meeting for 50 minutes and the pain in my legs was excruciating. I have been moving like a decrepit old person all day and will have tomorrow off from training as well.

Food has been good today as I wasnt even tempted to have wine with dinner (a bottle of Pepperjack Shiraz was open and needed finishing), leaving WH to be the hero in this respect. There was also some left-over Wildberry Baked Cheesecake from a belated WH birthday dinner and once again - NO TEMPTATION!! Now if I could just bottle this level of determination and draw on it at my weaker times .......... well if we could all do that there'd be no fat people in the world would there??

Have been pondering what my next fitness related/event goal will be. Have had some positive chats with WH but will explore further when we are holidaying. Watch this space!!

Cheers guys

Magda

CITY 2 BAY RUN AND DUSTED .....

.... in a whoppingly slow 1:26:41 (a little slower than what I anticipated.)

Yes folks I managed to "Cliff Young Shuffle" my way through 11kms of the run. Why 11? Because at 1 km out I decided that there was (just) enough left in the tank to pick my pace up to a 1/2 reasonable jog. That plus the crowds, plus the lure of the finish line and the emotion of realising another goal which I've had for ages. I "powered" to the end only to be left in that scary state where for a few breaths it feels like nothing is getting in.

Here are my race stats from my HRM AND I've realised that my weight is entered back around comp time last year so my cals burned would be much higher as I am SO much heavier now.

Total time: 1:26:41
Time in HR zone: :21 (yep folks 21 seconds only - no wonder it felt SO hard)
Average HR: 161 (eegads I'm 45 so this is quite high at 92% of my maximum heart rate)
Max HR: 183
Cals burned (underestimated!!): 851

So how do I feel? Physically I'm exhausted and would give anything to just call it a day and go back to sleep. My legs hurt and so does my lower back. All the physical signals are telling me "You idiot!! You're too old/unfit for this. You werent prepared well enough"

To which I say: "I'm not an idiot. I just go after my goals/dreams. I'm NEVER too old but I do concede that my fitness could have/should have been better - a few less kilos would have made the world of difference - and I prepared as I knew how. If I did it again I'd be better prepared".

Emotionally I feel good. I've wanted to do this for a long time but always doubted my ability. Today I proved that I could do it - even if I wasnt in the best shape or at my best level of fitness. At least if I ever decided to do it again, it wouldnt be hard to better my time. LOL

Thanks to EVERYONE you encouraged me, supported me and cheered me on (in spirit). I really appreciate it. And a big thank you to God/Mother Nature for blessing us with the most glorious spring weather. No wind. Sunshine. Cool-moderate temperature. Just perfect.

Cheers guys

:-) Magda

TIME FOR A NEW LOOK

Hi all,

on the eve of my attempt to achieve another of my lifetime goals, I've decided that my previous blog template was getting boring and its time for a new one. Do you like the new look? Be honest. I'd love a really funky individual template like some other bloggers have but where, oh where do you get them? They are not in the regular template options (which I'm finding a bit boring all round).

Anyway enough about aesthetics and lets get down to the serious business of blogging about where I am at 12 hours out from the 12km run, with the race number 1212. Does the number 12 have any significant or magical properties?? I have no idea but if you do, then please share.

Well this week I have been the ultimate anti-athlete. I've not eaten well partly because of nerves and partly because of some other self-defeating thoughts which I need to handle better in future. I did 2 runs instead of 3 this week but I dont think that missing the last run will be the make or break tomorrow. God has decided to smile down on me (I must have done something very good along the way and I'm being rewarded) with an amended forecast of 22 degrees and sunny. WH says it'll be cold overnight and fresh in the morning but fresh I can handle (I ran when it was .7 degrees one winter morning - now that was FRESH!!).

So this far-from-perfect week has me hoping that the pieces fall in place tomorrow and I run the 12kms and achieve my goal. WH and BS are then meeting me in Glenelg and we'll go out for breakfast to celebrate. In the afternoon I'm off to watch the lovely Miss Kerry compete in the WNBF South Australian State Championships. I cant wait to see her on stage after the blood, sweat and tears she has invested in her training this year. GO KERRY!!!!!!

I have so much more that I want to blog about but it'll have to wait as I need to sort some stuff out in my head. I'm having major problems with making decisions and then following through with actions. I change my mind over and over again and go around in circles.

Note to self: Find the straight and narrow Magda. Get on it. And stick to it.

Good night all

M

WIERD DREAMS

OK. Now I know I'm getting nervous about Sunday's run. I had the wierdest dream about it last night.

I dreamt that I accidentally lined up with the fast runners near the start line. And I got my photo taken with them.

During the run I was in a pack and we all stopped at a holiday house and everybody wanted to kick back and have fun. I was confused and declared that my goal was to run the race without having a break so off I set on my own.

I finished the run and was milling around the finish line for a few minutes when I suddenly remembered to check my race time on my watch. I read 80 minutes (which is sort of the time I'm expecting to do it in) and then realised I had done it in less than that as I had delayed checking my time.

I think I just need to rest up and relax as I have a funny niggle around my right hip. There is one more (easy) training run scheduled but I'm in 2 minds about doing it. I AM a bit nervous again about not making it.

BTW the weather forecast is for windy with showers on the weekend. Showers I'm ok with but wind GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR I HATE RUNNING IN THE WIND!!!!!!!!!!!

So now I've got that off my chest I shall read some emails and pray for some divine intervention.

:-) Magda

RIDING THE MERRY-GO-ROUND OF LIFE

You know what I mean ... up, down, up, down etc

On the work front things are ramping up. I have times when I feel my head will explode. There is information overload to process and I just know I wont remember it all when I need to. I confided to my WH today that I was scared that when Miss R was away (she hasnt started maternity leave yet) , I wouldnt know what to do. He laughed at me and said MOST people dont know what to do in their jobs and that I'd just have to make a calculated guess. Gee that was comforting ..... NOT!!

So what am I up about right now? Hmmmm let me think ........ ok let me see ...... well there's ...... or there's ........ Hmm maybe nothing.

Time to sign off I think and post again when I'm in a better head space.

G'night all

Magda

SINCE MY LAST POST I HAVE .....

.......

1. Had a great Friday at work. The weather was glorious here in Adelaide. My pregnant friend and I had to meet with some colleagues so we headed to a lovely cafe close to work, ordered some cappuccinos (I tell you , the white wine was VERY tempting!!) and sat out in the sun and talked business.

2. Had a Haemaview Consult with a Naturopath. She took a couple of blood (drop) samples and examined them under a microscope and then told me some interesting things about my blood and my health. I may continue to work with her in future.

3. Registered for the City 2 Bay. Look out for 1212 (what a great number!!) ..... faster than a speeding bullet, quicker than a ???? ... geez I've got a crappy memory. How did that go??

4. Been out to dinner at http://www.wineunderground.com.au/ (The Wine Underground) for WH's birthday. Fantastic night!!

5. Celebrated WH's birthday on Sunday. We had a late breakfast out and then he lazed around while I did the domestic chores. BS and I told him he was "boss of the world" and was not allowed to do any work. He thought that was particularly good :-)

6. Wrapped up Sunday with dinner at my Mum and Dad's. Once again, beautiful food, nice wine and celebrating with the family ... what more could you want??? Oh and WH did get some great pressies too.

7. Not done any more running. Saturday was a rest day. Sunday I had a shocking headache (did NOT stick to my 3 drink limit on the night before). This morning it was very stormy with gale force winds howling. I turned my alarm off and slept :-).

8. Survived a very cold and windy day here in Adelaide today. Quite frankly, I'm over the crappy cold weather now. BRING ON SPRING!!!

Hope your weekend was great too.

:-) M

AND I've just made my 500th post in my blog. Is that reason enough to break out the bubbles and celebrate???

DEDICATION AND NEW GOALS

Today's run was intervals of 1 minute fast then 1 minute recovery (slow jog), for 20 repeats. The first 3 repeats were hard and my fast runs felt slow. The next 12 repeats were pretty good. Reasonably fast and very slow jog recoveries. But the last 5 were really tough. My legs were tired and I was uncomfortably hot as it was quite a mild morning and I had rugged up expecting it to be colder. I was really happy when that run was over.

One thing that I've noticed with my training is that when I set a (meaningful) goal for myself, I actually dedicate myself to the required training. For example: I've completed every run session as outlined in my program (except one where I had to make an urgent dash to the toilet and therefore cut it short by about 7 minutes). There have been runs where I really wanted to cut them short (coz it was cold/windy/drizzling or I was tired/miserable/just over it) but I didnt give in. I finished them irrespective of all the negative factors/emotions. Having an extra week up my sleeve gave me a bit of flexibility when life got busier in the last couple of weeks so I was able to stay on track. Bring on that taper next week though!!

So on Sunday 21st September I WILL achieve my goal of running the City 2 Bay. My time wont be fantastic but that isnt my goal. I will run 12kms and prove to myself that I could do it.

And then it'll be time for a new goal .............

Good night all

Magda

MID WEEK CATCH UP

Hooray for hump day and getting past the first half of the week.

So how am I going?

Running training has been ON FIRE!! I set my alarm for 4.50am on Monday and set out to do a long run (even though I knew that I didnt really have to increase my distance). On Sunday I measured out a 3.5km circuit through my suburb but didnt mentally commit to completing it 3 times. I set out thinking to myself "I'll see how I go". So off I went at 5am at my "comfy long run pace" and did it once, did it twice and then set out on the 3rd lap knowing that I could cut it short, if need be. Not once did I check the time (this is GOOD!!) and half way through the last lap I was getting pretty tired but I pushed on just talking myself through each stretch from corner to corner. Knowing I had less than a kilometre to go I decided to go the distance and took it home for the full 10.5kms. I cant brag about my time (I was fairly slow) but I can brag that this is the longest I have EVER run. My legs were pretty tired for the rest of the day and I did everything to avoid walking to the 2nd floor of my work building where I constantly go for meetings.

I am training weights for chest, shoulders, back and abs and have some good DOMS in my chest and even a little through my abs. I never seem to get it in my shoulders and as for back ... well with only a barbell and dumbbells (no rack or bar) its hard to give your back a good workout. I will need to ramp this up in future but am deferring til after the City 2 Bay and our holiday in Queensland.

Eats??!!
Monday: Great
Tuesday: Great
Today: Hmmm could have been better. (Training course food. I took some of my own but the carrot cake at afternoon tea made its way past my lips GRRRRR) Tomorrow I'm taking all my food and plan to stay away from the crappy stuff thats provided.

So thats it in a nutshell. I'm tracking OK againt my 5 daily goals although not perfect. The main one of not binging is the most important to me and on that one I've done really well. So a pat on my back is deserved. Now to just gain control over some of my other not-so-good habits.

Cheers all

Magda

HAPPY FATHERS DAY

I was awake early today - not by choice - but by a pesky little boy who couldnt sleep. GRRRRR!! Bet he'll want to sleep in tomorrow. Then it'll be time for revenge :-)

So we spoilt WH with cards (one bought and one made at school) + a small gift. We also went out for breakfast which was lovely (as The Store always is). Then I spent the day pottering around and preparing dinner for both Dads (WH + my Dad).

I didnt run today due to a few factors but am planning on doing a longer run tomorrow morning. Sometimes the weekends are just too busy AND I refuse to set my alarm to run early. I figure a sleep-in is just as, if not more important as I do get pretty tired from early starts all week. So no exercise today (tsk tsk) but will make it up tomorrow so I dont feel slack or guilty.

The other thing that I'm going to focus on this week is just tightening my diet up a bit. My skin condition has flared up again so I'll be laying off the white flour, red meat, dairy and alcohol (which I've kept in moderation all weekend, I'm very proud to say!!). This isnt phasing me as there is still so much yummy and healthy food to enjoy without feeling deprived. And its not permanent - just til the itching eases off.

Well its late so I'll bid you all good night and hit the sack. I have an early start tomorrow.

Cheers all

Magda