I gave it my all

Okay the week is almost over and I'm weighing in tomorrow so wish me luck!

After a tough week, I gathered my strength and pushed through and I GAVE IT MY ALL.  I couldn't have had a better week... except if I gave up our Valentine's dinner, but that wasn't an option.  At least I had a super charged V-day workout and I hope it compensated a little for the one cheat meal.

This week I burned a whopping 2166 calories during my 5 workouts, yay!  I'm happy with that, and proud that I managed today's 410, because I really do feel a bit off  as I'm low on energy and a tad emotional.

I've got the FIGHTING SPIRIT in me, I'll die trying!

Mid-week Rambling

I can't believe it's the middle of the week again!  Half-way on my way to my next weigh-in and I'm worrying myself sick.  I've been good - ate well, ate clean - high in protein, low in sugar and tried to eat low GI as well where I can.  I trained well this week so far as well - 3x 45 to 50 minute workouts, burning 400+ calories each time.  I'm literally trying to dance my butt off!

My cycle hasn't started yet, so I'm probably going to be smack-bang in the middle of it on Saturday when I have to weigh.

I.don't.want.to.see.another.gain.and.feel.like.a.failure.

I'm scared.  I have grown to hate weigh-in days.. unless I have lost and it's over and done with for the week.  I'm afraid what the people who's following my journey will think when I said I was good and trained well, but then I log a gain.

I thought about skipping this week's weigh-in, but I don't want to do it, just for in case my hard work paid off and my water retention is gone and there's a small victory on my horizon.

So I'm going to go ahead and have a great week, train hard, eat as healthy as possible (with the exception of our V-day dinner) and just be positive.  Then I'll know whatever the week's result is that I did give it my best.  And that if it's not successful, I will still see the results I worked for, just not necessarily immediately and not necessarily on the scale.

I'm going to make myself proud.

Not so positive weigh-in

Oh dear, now I know why I dreaded Saturday's weigh-in so much  :-(
It was a terrible one and I'm so utterly disappointed.

Eating at a deficit from my TDEE (Total Daily Expenditure Energy) of about 600 calories a day, plus burning about 1800 calories from exercise last week didn't help me to lose weight.  According to mathematics and the speculation that 7200 calories equals a kilogram, I should have at least lost half a kilo.

But no, somehow I showed a GAIN of 0.7 kg.  I thought I did well, but then I didn't.  It's at times like this that I hate my body, where I just want to sit in a corner and sob my heart out.  So much effort and then I get a kick in the groin.

Why did I gain?

I really don't know.  It could be because my menstrual cycle is about to start.  It could be that I exercised hard and that my muscles retained water to repair.  Perhaps too much salt in my menu on Friday.  Perhaps I had too much fruit and that upped my carbs too much.  I really do not know.

So what am I going to do now?

Give up and make peace with my overweight body?  NO!
Take a week off to get over my AF?  NO!
Give in to my tired body and not exercise?  NO!
Emotional eating to make me feel better?  NO!

NO NO NO!!!

I'm going to put in some more effort.  Kick it up another notch!  My plan of action includes:

• Adding USN supplements daily.  I bought their CLA 3-pack All Day Weight-Care Supplements.    So I'm going to take the CLA Burn Thermogenic Body Toner in the morning.  The CLA Green Tea Antioxidant & Body Toner with lunch, and CLA Pure 1000 Advanced Body Toner with dinner.
• I'm going to exercise just as hard this week.  Just going to add another day of exercise, because I only did 4 sessions last week due to sore muscles.
• I prepared my menu for the week including lots of veggies and clean eating.  I do plan a cheat evening for Valentines though, but that shouldn't set me back as I'll still try to eat under my TDEE for the day.

Hopefully I'll have a better weigh-in next Saturday!  I really need it, so going to work really hard for it!

My trusty old Wii

My Wii plays a fundamental role in my weight-loss journey.  My hubby bought it for me back in 2008, and I added the Wii Fit to it, and later on the Wii Fit Plus.  Look I totally know that the Wii Fit's exercise is a bit Mickey Mouse, but it got me moving for the first time in my adult life and it was so much fun I kept at it.  Also I started using it to keep track of my weigh-ins and I still do my weekly weigh-ins on it today.  It's pretty accurate (measured against my electronic bathroom scale), and I can go back for years and see how much I weighed when.

Then one day I discovered that there's loads more fitness "games" I can use in conjunction with my Wii which is great for my workouts.  So far I have Step to the Beat which is a stepping/walking in rhythm game.  I do this when I want a chilled out workout as I don't burn too many calories with it - only about 220 per 45 minutes.  I also have a cardio boxing game which is a great workout and burns a lot of calories, and a My Fitness Coach: Dance Workout which is mainly latin dancing.  Then my favorites which I use regularly is Just Dance 1, 2, 3 & 4.  It's so much fun dancing, and I burn quite a lot of calories with it, especially if I use the Sweat Mode.  I easily burn 400+ in an hour.

With a 2½ year old, working full time, and in charge of our household - cleaning, laundry etc. my life is quite hectic and I don't have a lot of time for myself, nevermind time to go to the gym.  But with my trusty Wii, and exercise dvds by my side I manage to do 45 minutes of exercise about 4 to 5 times a week, because it's so much easier to fit it in my daily life than it would be to drive 20 minutes to a gym, gym for an hour and drive back.

So far I think I manage well on my own as I don't have too many issues to motivate myself to get up and do some exercise.  It helps me that my exercise is fun, that way I can keep at it.

Hope there's still many hours of fun with my Wii in the future!  Please, please, my dearest Wii, don't die on me, just keep going, I need you!

Exercise that kicks my booty!

Last week I was unwell with a sore throat and extreme sinus infection, so I took it easy with my exercise.  I only walked for about 40 to 45 minutes every day, so I decided this week since I'm feeling much better that I'm going to kick it up a notch with my workouts.  I had Zumba Sculpt and Tone waiting for me for a while now, but it looked so difficult combining the dancing with the weights (I do not have the toning sticks so I use my regular 1.5 kg hand-weights).  Yesterday I just dived in and did it.  Wow, what a workout!  45 Minutes of serious exercise.

It's so much fun, I love the pulsing rhythms and the different dance styles, and then combining it with strength training.  Yesterday I burned 428 calories, and today I pushed it even more with 441 calories - my heart rate an average of 151, reaching a max of a scary 173.

Going to stick with it for the week, and see if it helps my results.  Hoping to lose some serious cm's too!  I adore it when I feel so goooooood after a workout... absolute joy!

Good weigh-in

I am so pleased with my weigh-in.  I managed a loss of 0.6 kg last week :-)  A good weigh-in to me means at least a loss of half a kilogram - I don't want to aim too high as I want to do it the balanced way and don't want to deprive myself of specific food groups and food I do enjoy.  So yay, a successful week behind me, and hopefully another successful week in front of me.

My stats for the week:

Current Weight:  87 kg
Loss for the week:  0.6 kg
Total loss since January 2012:  14.9 kg
Total loss for January 2013:  1.3 kg
Percentage body mass lost 2013:  1.47%
Current BMI:  31.96

 

Non Scale Victories

It's weigh day again tomorrow and I must admit that I fear every single time I have to get on the scale, because I dread the scale not moving downwards.  Especially if I put in the hard work.  This year thus far, I only lost small amounts: the first week a loss of 400g, the second 300g... and then we'll see what tomorrow hold.

I'm writing today to remind myself of non-scale victories, and I need to do this on a regular basis.  I need to be loud and proud about it!

• Last weekend my dad (yes my DAD!) commented on my weight-loss.  This is a biggy as my dad never says anything about my appearance.  I must be doing something right :-)
• Less water retention this week, yay!  My thick-band wedding ring is sitting loose.  I'm actually scared to lose it
• One of my pair of pants that was fitting snug over the holidays is feeling much more comfortable on me.