Pics of me working out

Arm raises

Working out the shoulder muscles

Leg press - currently doing 75Kg

Leg curl - 30lbs

Rowing machine - I do this EVERY day

Free-lancing day 2 - cardio

This mixing up of routine has made my porr muscles ache ike they did in the first week of starting this challenge. I woke up with sore arms, abdominal and thighs from yesterdays workout. Today I had cardio free lancing, which with my already sore body was just that little bit harder.

So the program today went pretty much like this:

10mins on the bike on the 'Weight loss' program at level 5 (the bike changes the intensity level every 45 secs)

Done thrice:
25 jumps over a flat bench (hands holding on the bench)
25 squats (no weights)
30 over head presses with 2kg dumbells

Then 10 mins on the cross-trainer, intervals at level 5 (intensity level changed every 45 secs)

Done twice:
Crunchs in sets of three with a hold of 3 secs on third crunch - as many as possible
Bicycle crunch (put your hands behind your head and crunch rotating with left elbow touching right knee) - as many as possible

My poor legs were just about giving out on me and my abs are really sore. Next workout is Tuesday so 1 days rest before doing another free lance session.

Results after Week 4

Another hard week at the gym. And another difficult week with my baby, but he is FINALLY getting better. With the two long weekends coming up I will be training on a Sunday instead of Mondays, and I am swapping my Thursday night training for Saturday morning training meaning that I will be training 3 days on, 1 day off, 2 days on, 1 day off. And with free lancing for the next week I am very interested in my results for next week.

Now for this week results:

 

Weight: 90.6kg (-1.2kg)

 

Waist: 123.5 (-0.5cm)

Hips: 122 (-1.5cm)

Upper Thigh: 60.5 (-0.5cm)

Lower Thigh: 45 (-0.0cm)

Flexed Bicep: 33.5 (-0.0cm)

 

Fat Percentage: 36% (-1%)

which equals 32.616kg (-1.6kg fat)

 

Not bad, the biggest indicator of how it's going is that I need new pants for work!

Freelancing

I have been hard at work in the gym for four weeks now. For the next week, I will not be working out to my normal written down routine - I am 'freelancing'.

So what does this mean? Each day, a trainer will take me through a series of different exercises based on one body group - today it was arms. None of these exercises I have previously done before. Today I had to do:

Done twice:
15 reps - presses with the cable cross over machine
15 reps - single arm flies on the 'bubble' bench
700 sprint on the bike, level 10

Then:
1KM on the treadmill at 7.0km
2.5KM on the cross trainer at level 10
3 x 20 reps, triceps press using cable cross over machine with rope, over my head, 10 seconds between reps

Then abs:
Laying down, legs at 90 degrees, with 5kg medicine ball on my ankles - holding for 1 minute (twice)
Legs in air and crunching with 5kg medicine ball as many as possible (twice)

This is the only time I am doing this particular routine.

So why freelance? Your body gets used to the workouts you are doing. But mixing it up occasionally you force your body to do something else and assists you in gaining your goals. If you do the same workouts again and again and again then you become accustomed to what is required and attaining your goals becomes that little bit harder. Tomorrow, I have back free lancing (They are closed for monday public holiday). I will go back to my normal routine after a week.

One story about the NICU

Here is a story published in the Canberra Times today about the work at NICU:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/shannon-beats-the-odds-with-miracle-early-arrival-20120922-26e94.html

It shows the great dedictation of the people the work there :)

Results after week 3

A bit of a crappy week. My baby was quite sick this week - he ended up on antibiotics, but it meant I didn't get much sleep for a week, probably and average of 3-4 hours a night, which meant that I was tired, missed a training session and found it difficult to get motivated. Lack of sleep also slows your metabolism down, meaning you don't burn as much. I also interrupted my new eating patterns as I skipped breakfast a couple of times as I was running late for work.

My baby is finally getting better, but I have somehow picked up another bug which has given me a massive headache which panadol/nurafen isn't doing much with. Hopefully I feel better by tomorrow for my next week of training.

From my measurements today:

Weight: 91.8kg  (-0.8 kgs) 

Total lose of 6.2kg in three weeks

Waist: 124 cm (-3.5cm)

Hips: 123.5cm (-1.5cm)

Upper Thigh: 60.5cm (-0.5cm)

Lower Thigh: 45cm (-0.0cm)

Flexed Bicep: 33.5 (+0.5cm)

 Overall not bad, my body is losing size in the important areas - around my waist. I have dropped one dress size already,

Adipose

You may wonder what these are:

This is an Adipose - from Doctor Who.

Young Adipose were hand-sized, marshmallow-shaped beings, composed almost entirely of fat. They had two eyes and a mouth, two arms with webbed hands and two stumpy legs. In Doctor Who,  Adipose Industries, marketed a special diet pill to London's population with the slogan, "The Fat Just Walks Away". They find that the slogan is literal: the pills use latent body fat to create the Adipose, small white aliens which spawn every night, removing a little of the host's body fat each time. 1 pill = 1 kilo of fat every night (Don't we all wish!)

So for each kilo I lose I will say farewell to one little adipose at the top of my blog.

Fat/Muscle Percentages

Other than weight and centimetres, the other measurement you need to keep across is percentage of fat in your body. To measure this, you can use a specialised machine, or you can buy a set of scales that also takes readings of the percentage of fat compared to other things (muscles, bone, water) in your body.

How does it measure this? It sends a small electrical current through your body. Electricity passes through fat much quicker than through bone, muscle and water. The set of scales I have measures everything apart from muscle mass. The average female should have between 20-29% fat, around 7% bone mass and a water content around 45%.

Initially my body fat percentage was 44%. After three weeks of training it is now 37%. By using my weight I can determine that my initial fat weight was:

98kg x 44% = 43.12kgs

From my weight loss, my percentage is 37%, so:

92.6 x 37% = 34.262kg

Therefore 43.12 - 34.262 = 8.858kg of actual fat lost!

Since I have only lost 6.4kgs, this means that I have gained 2.458kg of muscle mass in the period.

This percentage is important to know. If you are 'over weight' according to the scales, but only have 20% fat mass, then you are carrying lean muscle weight over fat weight. No need to go on a diet.

The right time to weigh?

It's important when keeping a close eye on your weight not to weigh your self too much, after all, your weight is influenced by a lot of things and can flucuate by over 2 kilograms per day. This is due to eating, fluid levels, temperature, salt level . . . .well I could go on. To get the most accurate reading of your weight do the following:

1. Always do it at the same time of day - just after you get out of bed is best (after you've been to the toilet) and before you  have breakfast
2. No clothes - after all you are wanting just YOUR weight!
3. Same day of the week - it's best for comparison in weight loss/gain
4. The same scales - each can be calibrated slightly differently

With this in mind, since I didn't weigh myself until almost midday on Saturday, I got a set of scales from The Good Guys in Tuggeranong (Thank you Liz) and jumped on them this morning and the prescribed time.
To all you interested people, I now weigh 92.6kg!

Results after Week 2

I worked out hard this week, and apart from that one Monte Carlo I had with my cup of tea with my husband last Sunday I have been very good with what I have been eating, eating breakfast everyday (apart from one), having fruit at mid morning and mid afternoon, eating a healthy lunch of mainly grainy bread and tuna, and then eating a balanced dinner which has been either scotch fillet steak with vegetable and pasta, pumpkin soup, chicken and vegetables.

I weigh myself this morning and I had only lost:

0.4kg

which means my current weight is:

94.4kg.

This is a total of 3.8kg in two weeks. Not bad. I must say I was a teensy bit disappointed when I saw the figure.

I then took my measurements because I know I have been pushing myself hard at the gym and they have already started upping the weight I am using.

My new measurements are:

Waist:     127.5cm    (-1.3cm)

Hips:         125cm (-2.2cm)

Upper Thigh: 61cm (-1.7cm)

Lower Thigh: 45 (-0.2cm)

Flexed Bicep:  33cm (+0.8cm) thats muscle!

It's not just about losing weight

Did you know that fat takes up to 4 times more space than muscle?? Which means that you can drop a dress size and still not actually lose any weight! So losing weight, exercising, will also build muscle mass as well as losing weight, so those weeks that you worked your butt off and get on the scales, and you have only lost a small amount, not lost anything, or even gained a small amount, you have probably added some muscle along with losing some fat. So don't lose heart, muscle tissue require more energy to use so in the longer run it will burn more fat for you :)

You know if your body is losing fat and gaining muscle, take your measurements before you start: your Waist, Hips, Upper and lower thighs, and flexed biceps. For someone planning to put on muscle, you probably want to also take your shoulder width as well, but for my purposes it wasn't necessary.

I will update my measurements every couple of weeks to show you the cms I have lost over the time - Don't expect much from the lower thigh. Measurement is for circumference.

Emotional eating

Emotional eating is the practice of consuming large quantities of food -- usually "comfort" or junk foods -- in response to feelings instead of hunger. Experts estimate that 75% of overeating is caused by emotions.

I had an argument with my husband last night that followed onto this morning. What it was about is irrelevant. The fact is by the time I got to work all I wanted to do was dig into a Mars Bar, or a Cherry Ripe or something. Something that was nice and sweet and made you close your eyes and go mmmmmmmmm. Thankfully I resisted that urge.

Emotional eating is something that I am guilty of. In the 6 months of 2010, I lost almost 17 kgs over a 6 month period doing Wii Fit and then getting onto a treadmill. I was watching what I ate and doing the ‘right’ things’. Then my daughter died. It was a sudden thing, completely unexpected, and my world fell apart. I was miserable, hated my job (my supervisor had little sympathy for what happened) and everything seemed to be going wrong. My husband and I were fighting all the time – we once went 2 weeks without talking to each other except for sniping. In the 12 months following Kayleighs death I put back on all those kilos that I had managed to lose. And this was through not exercising, eating the wrong things and chocolate, chips and lollies. And I didn’t care that much about it – I probably should have. One thing that Kayleigh wanted was me to be fit; she was a real fitness freak herself. Emotional eating hasn’t helped in the long run, not at all. We all do it in a way, but it’s something I have to be aware of and is one of the ‘blockers’ for me to lose weight.

Temptation at work tea room

There is nothing worse than temptation being in front of you all the time. Every time I have had to fill up my water bottle or make a cup of coffee (skim milk one sugar) I have been confronted with this:

Boxes of chocolates and lollies. Cheap and nasty. The guy that does this reckons our floor (which i mainly IT guys) go through at least a box a week.

I avoid this I have started going to a different tea room. I must say that my new lunch and snacks are definitely more appetising than any of these chocolates.

Session 5 (legs and arms)

Long session today - much to Terence's annoyance because Kayl wasn't happy today. I expect to be sore in the legs tomorrow and I mainly did leg work, along with my usual rower/treadmill/cross trainer stuff.

My session went like:

Warm Up
3 minutes on the bike
Stretching

Leg (repeat twice)
20 reps on leg curl 10.5kgs
25 reps leg press, 60kgs
300m on treadmill @ 12% incline

100 step ups
20 Wall balls
1 minute 'push' treadmill (where you use the treadmill without it on)
1 minute straight punches with the punching bag

Arm (repeat twice)
15 arm raised (4 kgs)
1 minute, 2 kgs, holding the weight out arms length making little circles (hard hard hard!!!!)

3 x 10 ab twists with 4kg medicine ball
2.5km bike at level 10

Then stretching....

Took me over an hour as the trainer was busy with some other people and I probably waited too long between exercises.

Sessions 3 and 4

Session 3 (Back and Legs)

Tuesday's night session was HARD - back and leg work out. Wednesday morning I woke to my legs absolutely caning - Terence accidentally brushed my thigh and OWWWWWW!!! Full marks to the PT at Flames - every time they saw me flagging they encouraged me to keep going. The treadmill at the end was a killer.

Warm Up - as usual

Back (repeated twice)

15 Lat pull-downs 22.5kg
Reverse push ups (using straps from a high bar, standing legs in front, lean back until your arms are fully extended, then pull yourself up, keeping the straps tight) as many as possible (I managed 20 and the 18)

500m on the rower

Legs (repeated 4 times)

700 metres on bike, level 10

700 metres on cross trainer, level 10

Back (repeated twice)

15 Straight curls, 18 kgs (using the machine)

12 hammer curls 4kgs dumbbells

500 metres on treadmill, 15% incline

Then stretching out

　

Session 4  (Cardio)

After the previous nights work out I was pretty sore on the legs so was dreading this session. I must say that today (the day after) I am feeling better and my legs aren't as sore. I'm looking forward to the punishment tonight :) Not sure if I've documented everything I did, but this was the main part:

Warm Up

2.5 km on the bike - 500m @ level 3, then 2.0km @ level 5

Stretching

Cardio - repeated 4 times

500m on the treadmill, 0% inclune @ 5.5kms (about 5 min 30)

700m on cross-trainer, level 6, in squat position (about 1 min 40)

500m on rower (About 2 min 40)

Then 4 minutes on spin bike - 20 seconds flat out 10 seconds slow - managed 2.01 kms

Stretching

Weight Loss per week

How much should I be aiming to lose per week? The experts have determined that a 'safe' amount to lose on average each week is 0.9kgs. By safe they mean that you won't be doing long term damage to your body by starving yourself, over exercising or abusing yourself. This amount also means that the changes you are making are more likely be long term changes. We have all probably watching The Biggest Loser over the years, and it has been shown that people that have lost huge amounts of weight in a short period of time are more likely to put it (and more) back on again as they haven't made the required changes in their life to sustain and manage their new weight.

If I am to reach my goal of 10kgs in the three months (which is 13 weeks) I should lose on average 0.77kgs per week, which is a sensible amount. Now obviously this is an average - which means some weeks I may lose less and other weeks I may lose more. Last time I lost weight in 2010 (which was the period 6 months before my daughter passed away), I remember losing weight slowly and then one week I lost 3.5kg! I expect this to probably happen again. So with week 1 almost gone, I am on track to my average, which is expected.

Second Session (Cardio 2)

Monday 5:30pm - not sure what to expect. I thought I was going to be doing a weights session but I was told it was cardio again. This morning my legs are caning, I have the wobbles when standing (may also have something to do with the 3 inch heels I wear at work!). I was a good workout, lasted 50 minutes all up, so not bad and it was continuous and consistent training which is good for weight loss.

The session was made up of:

Warm Up
500metres on bike
Stretching

Punching Bag
This was a mix of jabs, hooks and upper cuts, plus punching with dumbbells for a minute then punching into the air for 30 seconds, stepups with shoulder presses, swinging a kettle ball weight and then squatting with a 5kg medicine ball than standing up and bouncing it against a wall. Got the heart going

Cardio
5 x 200 metre intervals on the rower with 15 second break in between (took about a minute each one)
9 minutes on the treadmill consisting of:
        - 3 minutes at 10% incline
        - 3 minutes at 5% incline
        - 3 minutes at 2% incline   (All up I managed 800 metres total, I'm so slow)
2.5Kms on the cross-trainer, going BACKWARDS - this was a killer, my legs were so wobbly after at and I'm afraid I made have sworn at the trainer (he asked how it was and I said it's f**ked) Took me 7 1/2 minutes

All followed by 10 minutes stretching out.

If I keep this up I'll be extremely sore come Saturday, but all I could think of when it started to get hard was I have to do this - for me and for NICU (there's my motivation!)

Kilojoules

I am attempting to be aware of the Kilojoules I consume during the day. The average female adult requires between 8300 kJ - 10900 kJ to maintain weight.

Obviously, to lose weight, your kilojoules intake must be less than your kilojoules usage.

Today, my kilojoules intake was:

Just Right ½ cup with ½ cup skim milk                  870 KJ            0.8g Fat

Handful of Strawberries                                             120 KJ             0.0g Fat

Multi-grain roll (small)                                            290 KJ            1.0g Fat

         - with tuna in springwater                               325 KJ             1.0g Fat

Orange – flesh only                                                   165 KJ             0.0g Fat

Apple – small Red Delicious                                      210 KJ            0.0g Fat

Tomato Soup (Heinz Big Red)                                  265 KJ           0.0g Fat

         -  Multi-grain roll (small)                               290 KJ            1.0g Fat

                                                            TOTAL:       2535 KJ       3.8g Fat

This means that I should have a deficit of 5,765 KJ that will have to be used by my body from my storage.

My intake won't be this on everyday, as I need to keep my iron intake up (yay for steak!) but by keeping track of what I eat, I can track what I am putting in compared to what comes out.

First Training Session

9:00 am Saturday morning and I have turned up, a little nervous, to Flames Fitness in Calwell. I am met by the trainer and told that I am going to be pushed hard. And he wasn't lying.

My session lasted for a little over an hour - some time was taken showing me how to use the equipment but over all it was go go go all the time. My session went like this:

500 metres on the bike warming up
5 minutes stretching

Group 1 (repeated twice)
20 flies with 4kgs weights
15 pushups (using a barbell so I am in an inclined position)
500 metres on the cross-trainer, level 10

Group 2 - Cardio (repeated three times) - each activity took between 2 and 4 minutes, no rest in between
300 metres on the treadmill @ 5% incline, 6.0km/h
400 metres on the rower
700 metres on the bike, level 6

Group 3 (repeated twice)
Dips - as many as possible (I managed 7 first time and 5 second time)
15  Tricep extension while lying on the bench

Then 10 minutes of stretching.

My legs were jelly at the end and my arms were also very wobbly. My trainer pushed me, even though he had other people to look after, anytime I started slowing down, he was straight on it telling me to push harder.
During the session I drank over a litre of water, especially during the cardio session :)

Next session Monday 5:30pm.........