Week 2: Overcoming Obstacles

My second week of the 12wbt was my week of 'overcoming obstacles'. Not major ones, but definitely ones that crop up every now and again, so I thought I'd share how I overcame them. Remember, just because you have a 'slip up' it doesn't mean you have to throw in the towel! 

Obstacle 1: Forgetting Lunch
Now I know what you're probably thinking. "Ahh, getting up late, forgetting to make lunch, not making time to prepare lunch before work". But no, I didn't forget to make it, on Thursday night I made up the salad, weighed out my hommus and falafel, put it all in containers, cut up my pita bread. I was so excited to eat that lunch! I LOVE falafel. But then I left that all sitting in my lunch bag on the kitchen bench.... and I didn't realise until I'd already arrived at work. Unfortunately it's too far to go back. Siiigh.  I was so annoyed at myself. The negative self talk started a little roar in my head "useless", "trying to fail", "what's the point", "all that time just wasted".  But I pushed it back out. I was determined to stop those stupid voices and dominate the rest of the day.

Now the old Alicia, the 21kg heavier Alicia would have taken this as a major set back and as an excuse to have fast food for lunch. But not this new Alicia, no way! 

I had to think of a back-up plan before the lunch time hunger hit! Because hungry Alicia + no food = eat anything in sight! There isn't a supermarket near my work, the only options are to go upstairs to the cafeteria (think chips, lasagne, fatty sandwiches) or go to a servo nearby. So I found this salad at the servo and a protein bar. I made a couple of modifications (threw out most of the cheese and one of the dressing sachets), and my lunch came to 343 cal.

Servo Salad & Protein Bar

Obstacle 2: Getting Sick
Yep, got the dreaded Flu over the weekend.  I thought I was doing so well, and them BAM it hit me like a tonne of bricks on Friday night.  On Saturday morning I still got up, made myself a healthy breakfast and started to feel a little bit better, so I dosed myself with Cold&Flu tablets to power through my Super Saturday Session with my friends at the park.  During the workout I felt pretty great, and my friend made us a yummy Mish salad for lunch afterwards, but by the time I got back home around 2pm, I was ready for bed. I just felt so weak. And (so unlike me) I had no appetite!

On Sunday morning I woke up ravenous, and usually when I'm sick I kind of give myself a 'free-for-all' pass to eat whatever I feel like. As if that will magically make me feel better. But this time I didn't! I stayed strong, and instead made myself some really yummy Protein Pancakes.

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Now this recipe I can share with you! This is from a lovely girl I follow on instagram, her name there is femmefitale, and she also has a blog: http://femmefitalefitness.wordpress.com/

Serves 2

I made a couple of adjustments, I added a ripe banana to the mix (just chuck all ingredients in a blender), and I used whey instead of casein protein, I'm sure any protein powder will work.  Then just cook over medium heat in a non-stick pan.  They cook quite quickly, so keep an eye on them! I served with half a fresh banana and natural yoghurt. So good, especially when I was feeling so yucky.

Come Monday definitely wasn't in a fit state to go to work, or do my Lean & Strong workout. I was devasted. I didn't want to hinder my progress! I still managed to go for a brisk 45min walk, which made me get some fresh air, and really lifted my spirits. So this week I'm starting a day behind (did Monday's workout yesterday), and I will move my Core & Flexibility workout to Sunday instead of having a rest day.

This is a break through for me, because today I'm feeling almost back to myself! Previously I wouldn't have taken the time to recover, I would have pushed myself to go to work, and to go to the gym, and I know I'd still be trying to fight off the flu.  But there is a VERY important lesson I've learnt: recovery is just as important as nutrition and exercise.  By putting my health first, I was able to recover quicker, and get back to the gym, instead of the flu lingering around like a bad smell for the next 10 days.

How did everyone go with Week 2? Did you too have to overcome some obstacles last week?

And how did you go today at Weigh in? I lost 0.2kg, so happy! That might sound like nothing, but this is AWESOME for me! My BMI is 23.5 and I'm back to my pre-holiday weight, woohoo! I am now the lightest I've been since mid-high school

Week 1 Challenge: What's My Inspiration?

Our first weekly challenge was to make an inspiration board.  I have been wanting to do this for a while, so here is mine;



I actually want to print some of these off and put them around my house, like on my fridge, inside my pantry and around my mirror. I think (and hope) this will help me keep my mindset in the right place. Good positive mindset = awesome results!

What's your inspiration? Did you make an inspiration board for the weekly challenge? Share the link with me!

12WBT Week 1: In Review

So its been one whole week of following Michelle Bridges' 12WBT, so I thought what I'd do is post my initial thoughts on the food and the workouts :) First of all, whoa. That went fast! Only 11 more of those to go and I'll be staring at a slimmer, leaner, fitter and happier version of me :D woohoo!

Now, the food. Let me just say, wow, I am so impressed. I thought I was pretty good at deciding what to eat, and keeping this interesting. Yes I was getting a little bored with my food, but hey, I'm trying to lose weight, its not going to be meat pies and pizza is it? Oh wait. Mish blew that out of the water! Haha.

I initially joined the 12WBT mostly for the workouts, but so far, the food has BLOWN ME AWAY. It is soo good! Healthy does not have to be boring! And there aren't any teeny tiny portions either! But there must be some downside to all this yummy food and losing weight at the same time right? Well yes, there kind of is. Its called meal prep or food prep... aka dreaded cooking! Since I am on this journey with my mum, we can share the cooking. She will make dinner, I usually make breakfast and then we take turns in cooking lunch. Which has been amazing, and has meant I can follow the menu pretty much to exactly what Mish has decided for us. But, that doesn't mean you can't do this on your own! If I was doing this by myself, I'd simply make all my lunches and a couple of back-up dinners each Sunday or Monday night, so I don't feel like I'm constantly in the kitchen. Doing it this way isn't so bad, and getting into a routine of Cooking Sundays can be quite fun. Ok, you won't have as much variety throughout the week, repeating recipes a little more often. But the recipes are so damn good, I don't think you'll mind. I'd eat all of them again for sure!

Let me show you some of my favourites from this week's menu;

Next, the workouts! This is what I was MOST excited for! To have Michelle Bridges as my Personal Trainer. To get f*cking ripped! Haha. So Monday heading into the gym with my workout print out (and a pen!), I did feel a little silly. I had my insecurities, "I'll look silly", "I'm not strong enough", but once I got started, these thoughts floated out of my head as I pictured Mish's awesome shoulder muscles, and how great I'm going to feel with a flatter belly. I pushed my way through the workout, and was introduced to exercises I'd never done before, and also some that I loved. They were well set out, and quite easy to follow.

I did have to look up a couple in Mish's 'Exercise Index' before going along to the gym, so it would be great if there was a little picture on the print out to jog my memory though. Because I am following the 'Advanced Lean & Strong' program, most of my workouts are strength based training, and I do have the option to go to gym classes as well. I did one gym class, and 5 of Mish's workouts. I was quite sore earlier in the week (hello arms!!), but by Saturday I was ready to smash the Super Saturday Session laid out for me. Some of my friends are also doing the 12WBT so we all got together and did the SSS in a park near my house, set up as a circuit. It was great fun and the time definitely went quicker than it would have if I'd been by myself in the gym! 

Lastly, mindset and support. I know what you're thinking, "whatever, I'll gloss over this part". BUT DON'T! This is key. The forums are a great addition to the program, you can post questions or queries there, post about your successes, or a plea for help if you feel yourself slipping. Its great feeling part of a community, and everyone is very positive and supportive of each other. I can see us all getting quite close by the end of 12 weeks, and its great to read other peoples trials and triumphs throughout the week. I think the mindset challenges are awesome. I actually think, besides the yummy food and the wicked workouts, these are going to be what sets this program apart from all the others out there. How many times have you jeopardised yourself with negative thoughts? You know what I'm talking about "I'm not good enough", "Everyone else is so much better than I am", "I can't do this", "This is too hard". I know I have ruined many weight loss attempts with toxic thoughts like this. But Michelle Bridges and the 12WBT gets you to address these thoughts and emotions, the program releases tasks and videos each week to help you master your mind, and enhance your efforts.

The pre-season tasks were particularly awesome in this respect! The goal setting was especially helpful for me. So if you are doing Round 2, and you haven't done your pre-season tasks, what are you waiting for? GO DO THEM! If you're not, start trying to eliminate these negative thoughts the best you can, they really are detrimental to success!

I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts so far and how they are finding the foods and workouts! Do you feel the same way about mindset and how important it is?

Bring on Week 2!

Weekend Motivation

Here's something to think about, just for a minute or two, I want you to actually visualise what this will feel like:

Now, when you feel tempted to eat something "naughty", or to skip out on your workout, think back to this visualisation :)

12WBT: This is NOT diet food!

One of the pre-season tasks for 12WBT is to thinking about excuses...

One of my silly excuses is: "I'm too tired, I can't be bothered".  You know those days when you're alarm didn't go off, so you rushed to work without make-up on, and the traffic was horrible so you still arrived late, you're boss asked you where that performance report is, the phone won't stop ringing? Finally its hometime and things are looking to improve. so you hit the gym to relive your stress, only to find its so busy your workout takes much longer than usual, and after feeling like the WHOLE WORLD has been against you all day, you finally get home and think to yourself, "I'm too tired and I can't be bothered cooking, and then washing up!" Maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm sure you know the feeling?

In an attempt to pre-empt that excuse, and to take advantage of my current excited motivation and "no excuses" #beastmodeactivated mood, I decided to prepare some meals that I could freeze and just wack in the microwave when I'm feeling exhausted.

So I made my first 12WBT recipe! How exciting! I picked the yummiest sounding one that I already had most of the ingredients for - 'Mexican Style Shepard's Pie', and boy, this did NOT disappoint!  I had to triple check I hadn't read the recipe/quantities wrong it tastes so damn good!

This is not 'diet food' people!

I am so impressed! If all the recipes are this full of veggies and taste this amazing; I'm going to be so ripped in 12 weeks! Haha.

My story so far...

(or my journey losing 21kg)

Before and After - 21kg GONE!

The battle against my weight is something I have endured for almost my whole life.

I was the chubby girl, who in primary school didn't want to put her bathers on for swimming class, got called names on the playground, the girl who cried every time she went shopping for new jeans, and went on a diet before the school ball.

I was the girl who hid under her clothes, and deliberately chose brands and cuts that accentuate all the right places and hid all the wrong ones.

'Embracing the curves'

I went through numeous diets trying to change my body while I was in high school, university and into my early twenties.  Sometimes they worked, and other times they did the opposite (thank you Atkins... not!), but my weight would fluctuate, and then I would always settle back down to being in the overweight but not obese category, feeling uncomfortable in my own skin, and despising anyone who could put on a pair of jeans with out exploding over the top of them. I started to accept that I would always be slightly on the larger side of "average", and tried to eat healthily, exercise more and "embrace my curves".

YAY! S.E Asia.. and a Tiger's tail

When I turned 23 I decided it would be a good idea to sell everything and go backpacking around Southeast Asia (turns out it was one of the best ideas I've ever had... if you'd like to read more about this adventure, I kept a travel blog here: aliciatakesasia.blogspot.com).  Being on a very tight budget, eating (mostly) only what the locals ate, and being very active everyday worked! Somehow the weight started to fall off me, and just as I creeped into the healthy side of my BMI, I ran out of money and moved back to Australia.

Backpacking seems to agree with me

Feeling like I never wanted to be overweight ever again, I tried to disapline myself when I returned.  I bought tigher jeans (woohoo), I tried to exercise more, I tried to eat less.  But when I returned to a sedentary lifestyle (read: office job) and a western diet, my weight caught up with me once again.  This time I didn't have so much hate for my body, and instead tried to 'embrace my curves' and shove the diets, because the only thing that had worked for me to date was backpacking and "not trying".

However, having just met my lovely partner Michael (who worked out all the time and was very fit), I felt like I wanted to at least improve my fitness so we could jog together in the 14km Run for Reason in May last year.  So I started trying to motivate myself to get back into running (it has always been something I've enjoyed... once I'm fit that is!). This allowed me to lose about 2kg and around the same time my mum and my sister joined Weight Watchers, and invited me to join with them.  I joined thinking I could spare a couple of kilos (initially I wanted to lose 7kg), and was pretty offended that they thought I needed to lose 13kg (almost double what I had in my head!).

Let's go diving!

Just after Easter last year, Michael and I went on our first scuba diving trip together, to Amed and the Gili Islands in Indonesia.  This is when it started to dawn on me that perhaps I was closer to being the chubby girl I'd always been, than the slimmer backpacker I wanted to be, and that maybe WW were right in telling me I need to lose at least 13kg.  I couldn't find any boardshorts to fit me before the trip (you try finding size 16 boardies in March... a very difficult task!!), and once we were there, I was the diver struggling to keep up with the group, having trouble lifting and carrying my gear to the boat, always being the first to get short of breath and run low on air.  I became aware of how uncomfortable I was with my body.

Upon returning from our trip, I was in the middle of a motivation surge, so I really did start running, and actually decided to join the gym with my good friend from work Krystal.  Even looking back now its so funny that we joined.  I actually just wanted somewhere I could train for the Run for Reason that involved air conditioning and not getting rained on, and somehow I convinced Krystal to come along to the gym's 7 days for $7 deal to "try it out".  But we fell in love with the classes, in particular BodyPump, and how sore it made us the next day, and we loved our time on the treadmill too, who knew 45min on the treadmill flew by so fast when you had a friend to chat with? I guarantee I wouldn't have made the progress I have if it wasn't for Krystal being my workout buddy! It so much easier to go when you have someone to go with, and to keep you both accountable.

Halfway point... With my lovely workout buddy Krystal

But after losing 17kg, and feeling amazing, I started to plateau... Just as I'd realised the initial 13kg that was recommended to me was not going to cut it! And I was so bored with what I was eating, I could feel myself slipping, I just could not face another Coke Zero and frozen weight watchers meal for lunch.  Surely there was a better way?

17kg down and feeling great!

This is when I discovered "clean eating", the 'revolution' that seems to be sweeping instagram, even though it is actually really simple.  But for me, to have those boundaries of 'this will nourish your body and aid your workouts' compared to 'this might be the same caloric value, but not the same nutritional goodness', opened my eyes to what I was really putting in my body.

The last 4kg have been lost via clean eating, and even though it sounds like a small portion of my weightloss, it's what has made the biggest difference in the appearance of my body. Once I was actually eating to properly support all the hardwork I was doing at the gym, I went from feeling great to feeling amazing!

So now its time to really get my workouts into shape, and that is the main reason I have joined Michelle Bridge's 12WBT.  I pretty much know what I should be eating (although the ready done meal plans and new recipes are definitely an aspect I am looking forward to during the 12wbt! It will save me so much planning!), but I am kind of guessing about what I do at the gym.  I pick out pieces of BodyPump that I like and replicate it, I use the machines I know how to use (which is most of them), but I get lost with core workouts a little bit (mostly because of the lack of machines), and I'm kind of just hoping for results rather than doing workouts I know will get me the results I want.

And here we are, about to start the next chapter in my story.  I am planning to follow the 'Lean and Strong' program with Mish, which focuses primarily on weight and strength training, and just one cardio day per week.  The results I'm looking to achieve will be a noticeable difference in overall strength and the look of my body (lower bodyfat percentage, and a tighter more toned look), and to really amp up my core strength.  Not just my abs, but also my back, which I have found (the hard way) is suspeptible to injury.

Michelle Bridges - My New Trainer!

I hope when you look at these pictures and read my story they inspire you, wherever you are in your fitness journey. Even though I know I'm not at the "end" of mine,  I do know I have made changes that will stay with me for life, and my body will continue to progress. If I can do it, anyone can do it! Stay strong! Think of the results you'll be looking at this time next year! And then smashhh it!

Hello Blogworld!

I've had a couple of requests to start a blog since joining instagram (my username over there is imunderconstruction, if you aren't already following me), and I thought what a better time to start a blog than when I'm just about to embark on a new leg of my fitness journey?

I've just signed up to do Michelle Bridge's 12wbt, or 12 Week Body Transformation (woohoo!)

So if your interested in following me on this journey, or you're doing the 12wbt yourself, you've come to the right place :)

I will be posting updates weekly or so on my thoughts on the program, and my progress.  I'll also post somethings here to keep me accountable, like my mini goals and my ultimate goals.

Are you ready? Let's do this!