Accountability August - Day 1

Day 1

It was a good day!

• I ran 5.19km in the morning
• My Fitbit steps for the day totaled just over 10000
• Sleek Geek's challenge for the day was 30 star jumps - I completed this
• I did 5 sets of 5 deadlifts @ 30kg (and I'm feeling this today)
• Macros were perfect. My two main meals for the day were Beef & Veggie Soup and for dinner Rump steak, sweet potato chips and avo salad

Pre & Post Run Selfies and Dinner:

Accountability August / Awesome August

Wahahaha I can't decide what to call my challenge for the month of August, I just know it's going to be AWESOME, and I'm going to stay ACCOUNTABLE.

Okay, last time I blogged I'm close to breaking the 80's and I got closer with only 1.2 kg to go, but then my boy's birthday happened and then mine and I had carbs galore and was a lazy pants with this cold and rain we had.  So I don't know where my weight is sitting at, I will weigh Friday and see.

It's a new month and I am super amped about it and I'm going to give it my all this month, because I want to be in the 70's by Spring.  So my plan for this month is as follow:

1. I'm going to update my blog every day to stay accountable.  I will blog the exercise I did, the steps according to my Fitbit and if I stayed within my allocated macros.
2. I'm going to take photos - selfies post exercise and sometimes of my food etc and blog that too.  More accountability (So if you're subscribed and the posts irritate you, unsubscribe now cause there's gonna be 31 posts this month!)
3. I'm going to do Sleek Geek's Move More Challenge.
4. I'm gonna run! Also doing the Diva Run on Women's Day.
5. Eat according to my macros.
6. Lift (borrowed some extra weights from my BIL)

Let's do this!

Do I dare say?

Do I dare say I am close to getting out of the 80's, so close that I can smell the 70's?  Because I really don't want to taunt Murphy, but at the same time I'm so damn proud of where I am right now.  ((Check my weightloss top right!!!)) I have 1.6 kg to go to break the 80's and I really want to give myself the gift of breaking the 80-kg barrier for my birthday in 3 weeks.  Then again, I have an uphill battle before then as it's my boy's birthday and party, I can't run as much at the moment due to school holidays... So I need to remain patient with myself and accept it might not happen exactly before my birthday (we all know at what slow rate I lose weight!), but hear my words it's going to happen soon afterwards, because I'm not done fighting for it.

There.... I have said it out loud now. I'm going to make this happen!  Plans forward - IIFYM as I've done this past year - I have great success with it, it's easy to follow and stick to; and I will exercise as much I can and move move move now that I'm almost over my cold.

Breaking the 80's is a big deal for me as it's been a big mental block.  I've also spent much too much time here as I was 3 kg away before I fell pregnant almost 3 years ago and it was quite a fight to lose the pregnancy weight and drop below that again.  I'm tired of this 80's seesaw now, upwards and onwards. Wish me luck!

#Powerful

Yes! This!

Mini Goals Achieved!

I'm just gonna put this here. .. and then do a hop, skip and jump!!!

• 5km in under 40 minutes - tick! 
• Under 8 minutes a km - tick!
• And a bonus of distance of 6km, and 45 minutes+ of consecutive running with no walking - tick!

Happiness is a lekker run!

Next goal: 7 minutes per km - but this is a long shot and it's going to take me a while, me thinks...

EDIT. I just realised it's a month since my last blog post where I still struggled to fit a 5km into my exercise time and now I did a 6km.  "I still got a lot of fight left in me!"YAYNESS!

Accomplishment & Self-doubt

On Tuesday I completed my C25k programme, yay! I felt so proud and happy. I am really impressed by this programme, it helped me a lot and pushed me into running for longer after struggling for so long on my own.  Although the programme is called Couch to 5k, it only helped me to run for 30 minutes straight (with extra walking for a warm up and cool down), but I can't run a 5k in the time frame expected as yet.  For instance, this morning I ran for 30 minutes, walked 3 minutes to rest a bit and then ran 10 more minutes and in the 43 minutes I ran for a total of 4.75 km. So I basically now just have to work on my speed.  My plan is to try every morning to fit a 5 km into my allotted exercise time (I only have about 40 to 45 minutes) - I am nearly there.  After that I want to push to get the 5 km done in 40 minutes and then I'll take it from there again and plan new goals.

Even though I completed the programme this week, I experienced a lot of self-doubt since Monday. I think it has a little bit to do with the running app I downloaded to monitor my speed, so I see that it takes me 9:15 to run a km and I want to do better. Now I have these negative feelings towards myself - I am too slow... I am not good enough... Am I really a runner? I lost almost 4 kg this past 3 months, but thinking it's also too slow and not good enough even though I worked my ass off for it.  Saw pics hubby took of me yesterday and I look fatter than I feel :( Oh and my ankle hurts from an old injury, my calves pain, I am stiff from my run. Urgh, I know I am being silly and I will get over myself, but blegh... just blegh.

This popped up in my news feed yesterday and I need to remind myself of this on a more regular basis.

Note to myself from myself:

You did bloody well, girl, you have come so far. Keep going and stop doubting yourself, you will keep going and accomplish a whole lot more, I just know it.  Your body is changing and you can feel it, people comment on it and even though it's slow-going, it's going. You will make yourself proud, you will make your hubby and children proud. Don't care about the opinions of those who does not care for your journey. Love yourself, love your body - it's doing an amazing job, love how strong you are getting, love your accomplishments. You go girl, am rooting for you! xxx

Running!

Murphy is a biatch!  I wrote last about starting week 4 of my running programme and how chuffed I was with completing the first run of the week.  Well as Murphy would have it, I completed Week 4, excited to move on to Week 5 of the 8-Week programme and then the very next day after I did my last Week 4 run I got sick with a terrible, terrible bug that kept me ill and in pain for 8 days.

With that, Easter weekend and my boy who is at home with the school holidays I did not get to run for a full 12 days and I started back today.  I did not want to run, I was lazy this morning, my body is still run down and tired after being sick, and my little girl is not herself and sleeping poorly as well. Plus I was scared to see how much progress I lost in the almost 2-weeks.  Somehow I motivated myself... they say after all the hardest part of the run is the first few steps out of the house... So I decided to do a Week 4 run again.  I am happy to report that I managed that easily!  But I think I will do another Week 4 run tomorrow to be on the safe side and then move on to Week 5's runs a bit later this week.

A few things I have learned about running and myself this past few weeks:

• I am really enjoying it. Who would have thought...
• Running with music in my ears is the only way to go.
• I need a programme to help push me further.  I realize now how much time I have wasted December to mid February by trying to run on my own, because if my legs/brain says I'm tired I stop running, but with the programme I run when it says run and I walk when they say walk and they challenge me each time to do better.
• I can not work on endurance and speed at the same time... hence I am only working on endurance for the moment... so snail pace it is!
• I need to get out of my own head when running... I need to let my thoughts wander and not think about me running. I just need to put one foot in front of the other automatically and let my mind go. Hence the music helping.
• It really, really helps me to lose weight!

A dear friend invited me to do a 5km race with her in a month's time and I accepted and immediately signed up and paid for it.  If all goes well (and let's face it life likes to throw lemons) I will be able to complete my C25k programme by then and I am hoping I will be able to run most of it, although I think it's going to be slow and hard.  I am so looking forward to it though!