Deurmekaar week for me...

My week started off with my 33rd birthday yesterday.  It's quite sucky to have a birthday on a Monday, but luckily I had the afternoon off.  Hubby took me out for a surprise lunch and it was so nice, but then started with a sore throat which was awful, but was fortunate enough to sleep a little until hubby and Jamie returned after work and daycare.

So wasn't able to fit in my workout yesterday, but going to carry on today although I don't feel a 100% yet - still have a post-nasal drip and sore throat, but I don't think it will affect my exercise.

My plan for the rest of the week:

Tuesday:  30 Day Shred
Wednesday:  Zumba & Kettlebell
Thursday:  Dancing
Friday: 30 Day Shred
Saturday: Will do Monday's Hip Hop Abs.

Plan of action for the week ahead

I love having a plan, without a plan, goal or challenge I feel a bit lost.  Luckily a fitness trainer friend of mine, helped me and compile a new exercise program for me with the exercise I like doing.  This week I'm going to focus on cardio and from next week will incorporate the 30 Day Shred again.

The plan for the week look like this:

Monday:  Zumba & either Hip Hop Abs or a kettlebell ab workout.
Tuesday: Cardio Boxing & abs
Wednesday: Dancing
Thursday: Cardio boxing & abs
Friday: Zumba & abs
Saturday: Kettlebell workout with lots of swings.

Looking forward to all the cardio!
Can't wait to see more results, I need to break the 80's really, really soon!

Reboot v2 done and two goals achieved!

30 More Reboot Days done and dusted!  Yay, me!  Did I achieve my goals?  Hell yeah!

I feel so relieved, I am so ecstatic, I'm out of my skin, in fact I feel a bit delirious!  Thank you, thank you, my dearest, most wonderful body for breaking this plateau!  I am down 2.1 kg!!  So not only did I achieve my 20 kg lost-goal, I surpassed it and am standing on a total loss of 21 kg.  It's official, I am no longer obese, no sir-ee, no way, now I'm just overweight and still going to work hard to get out of that BMI category too!

I can't tell you how much it means to me to reach these two goals.  It's HUGE for my own self-worth, my self-image and it's such a confidence booster to know that my body's no longer the mess that it was 19 months ago, that I'm working to be healthy and doing the best for ME.

Thanks for all your support!  It was tough this time around, especially in the beginning, and I felts so hopeless when I did not lose in the beginning, but it just goes to say "quitters don't win, and winners don't quit!"

Wooohooo!

Last 3 Days of Reboot

Day 28 today! So excited that I'm almost finished with my second Reboot.  It really does make me feel so much better, and my body feels so much stronger.

I decided to put a pause on my 30 Day Shred challenge until I've finished Reboot, because I think it's affecting my results... I think I need a more diverse training programme and incorporate more cardio to get the weight-loss going again.  Don't get me wrong - I'm definitely going to finish the challenge, it's just going to take me a bit longer.

I don't really want to say this out loud, for in case I jinx it, but it almost looks like the scale has started to move again.  I'm not asking for much... I know I'm not going to have a 4 kg loss this time around... All I want and need is to lose 500 gram off the weight I was when I finished my first Reboot.  That will help me achieve my second short-term goal of 20 kg.  If I'm asking for a lot, I will be asking to lose 900 gram, because then I will not only reach my 20 kg goal, I will place my BMI under 30, meaning I will not be in the obese class any longer.  Going to work hard at achieving this, this last 3 days of Reboot!  Mentally, it will mean a lot to me.

Let it be a good week!!!!

Reboot Day 22 & 30 Day Shred Half-way *Update

Can't believe I'm so far into Reboot v. 2 already.  Next week Wednesday I would be finishing up my last day!  On top of it I completed my 15th day on the 30 Day Shred workout, so I am half-way with that too.  Time sure flies when you're having fun.

I started the Reboot and the 30 Day Shred challenges on the same day, but I'm going to take longer to finish the Shred, because I allow myself some rest days, and also there are days I prefer to do different workouts.  Like on Sunday I had a mega-dance session and burnt oodles of calories and had tons of fun.  So on average I stick to the Shred 5 out of 7 days.

I am glad I am sticking to my guns and completing both these challenges even though I'm not getting the results I've hoped for.  Somewhere along the lines the weight will start shifting again, and I hope it has happened already without me knowing so that when I weigh in and measure next week that I'll be seeing a difference.  I am determined, I'm not going to be defeated.

Thank you!

From the bottom of my heart - thank you for everyone's encouraging messages yesterday.  It really did help me to get through a very difficult and sad day.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I am not ready to give up, I will keep fighting this fight.

I've been thinking a lot yesterday, trying to figure out if I've gone wrong somewhere.  I've started to think that my body really adapts quickly to the way I'm eating and as soon as I'm starting to lose weight it figures it out and fights me.  Reason why I'm thinking this - last year January I just started out eating healthy and watching portion sizes and I've lost weight, then it slowed down.  Then I started calorie-counting and I lost again and once again slowed down.  I incorporated different exercises, and ways of eating like low carb, low fat etc, and it went and stopped, went and stopped.  Now I've done my first Reboot and I've lost well, had a 6 day break, and did my second one and weight is suddenly not coming off any longer.  Is my body really desperate to hold onto all my fat and being counter-productive to wreck my efforts?  Maybe that theory is a bit far-fetched... I don't know.

Perhaps my insulin resistance?  I'm trying to combat that too - bought myself a new supplement AntaGolin.  Hopefully that will assist a bit...

Then this morning, I found the following someone posted on the Sleek Geek Support page:

How to fix a sluggish metabolism. 
I read this the other day and if you are trying to get into shape this is top priority valuable information. 
Firstly if your metabolism is sluggish, any attempt of loosing weight or dieting will most likely end in failure. Now, this is not new news to anyone but how do you know at your metabolism is to slow.
This is how,First, get yourself a thermometer and check your body temp everyday for a week, the average temp will tell you if you are in the clear to diet, or if you need to crank it up a notch. 
You want to be in the region of about 37C any lower than that and you're metabolism is to slow. Any attempt of fat lose will be to time consuming and may end in failure.
What if you are below 37C?
Work out your maintenance calorie intake and add 300-500 cal on top of it, so it you normally eating about 2300cal you must punch it up to 2600-2800cal per day for about 4 weeks until your are in the 37C zone. Then hold it there for another month before you start your fat loss program.
Now eating more sounds crazy when you are trying to loose weight but your metabolism will be burning up the excess cal intake and you may even start to lean up. 
NOTE: eat clean when bumping up your calories (I know this goes without saying) if you meet this new cal intake with junk food and empty calories for 2 months you will most likely put on body fat.

It immediately made sense to me, because my body temperature is always low in the region of 35.5 degrees and sometimes as low as 34.  But eating so many calories ... I just don't know.  I'm afraid I will pick up even more weight.  But I will investigate further and look for solutions to rev up my metabolism.  I know of certain foods that assists, like chillies and hot foods which I always try and include in my eating always.

Anyway.

I'm fine, still feeling sad and hopeless, but working on it and continuing on this journey!

Halfway through Reboot v. 2!

The subject line of this blog post indicates accomplishment, or almost - halfway through a challenge - excellent stuff!  Those who have read my blog or know me should be well aware by now that I always try to be positive and self-motivate myself as much I can.  Celebrate achievements and set new goals and motivation when not so successful.

But not today.

This time I'm going to bleed and cry all over my blog.  So excuse me for a while so that I can get this all out and hopefully feel a bit more positive afterwards, but I can't guarantee it.

I'm tired.
Of this journey.
Of fighting this battle with my body constantly.
For being kicked in the teeth with terrible results after I've put in the effort.
For not getting the results that I deserve.
It's been a year and a half of constantly trying, and trying and trying and picking myself up off the ground constantly.

Yes, so I weighed in this morning.  Wish I hadn't and just went on with the challenge and only weighing at the end of it.  I'm UP 600 grams since I completed my first Reboot.

After 15 days on my new Reboot challenge, adding a second challenge (30 Day Shred) which is still going well (Day 10 today) and keeping myself absolutely cheat-free, and with less Reboot treats than the first time around.  How on earth could it be possible.  No cm loss either...

My third Plateau???? Seriously, is this happening again?????  My third plateau in 18 months???  Why on earth am I struggling so much when I'm doing so much to combat my weight-problem?  Why can't I just get the break that I deserve... the break I work so hard for.

It's a long journey, I know and I was prepared for it, that's why I'm still going strong after a year and a half.  I just feel my progress is much too slow - only about 19 kg after 18 months.

And don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled for the kg I have lost.  It has made such a huge difference in my life, an enormous difference and I won't trade it for anything.  I'm just thinking about the other 15 - 20 odd kg I still need to lose.  Am I going to see goal weight before I turn 35?  I wanted it before I turn 33, and that's in 3 weeks time, so that ain't happening.

I'm just so tired of this fight with my own body.

I think I'm ending off on this post now, because I see no positivity coming from it.  For now, I'll just breathe and carry on with my two challenges and hope and pray that something comes of it.