It’s week 4 and I’m feeling pretty good about myself! I’ve lost a bit more weight and my feet are starting to heal after a bad bout of hand foot and mouth disease. This means that I am getting back into exercise again this week, starting tomorrow!

Here is how I did this week:

Week 4 stats:

START WEIGHT: 88.9 kg

LAST WEIGH-IN: 87.4 kg

WEDNESDAY WEIGH-IN: 86.6 kg

LOSS: 0.8 kg (2.3 kg total)

BMI: 32.2

OUTLOOK: positive. I might even post a photo of myself this week!

Nutrition Plan Review

I think I might have tracked calories 2 days this week. I suppose you can tell, because my loss this week is not as good as last week’s! MyFitnessPal is going to get  workout this coming week.

Most unusual recipe this week: Satay egg, carrot and cucumber corn thins. Honestly, who would have ever thought that peanut butter and curried egg could work together!!?

Exercise Review

Can’t say I exercised AT ALL this week. I had been sick for 3 weeks, and then lucky me I contracted hand foot and mouth disease from my daughter’s daycare. YUCK. It is starting to clear up now, so I will get back into exercising this week!

I can’t believe it’s Wednesday of week 3 already!

I didn’t post anything from week 2 because I was travelling and sick. Yes, I am STILL sick (that is 3 weeks now). In fact, I woke up in a pool of sweat this morning because I had a terrible fever last night. Well, I lost weight anyways, but how much of that was lost water in sweat I’m not too sure! We’ll see how I go next week.

Week 3 stats:

START WEIGHT: 88.9 kg

LAST WEIGH-IN: 88.4 kg

WEDNESDAY WEIGH-IN: 87.4 kg

LOSS: 1 kg (1.5 kg total)

BMI: 32.5

OUTLOOK: pretty impressed with the 1kg loss… but not feeling too hot

Nutrition Plan Review

I maintained the 1200 calorie goal pretty consistently this week, but I did not follow the plan since I got back from Bundaberg and I had all this food in the fridge!

I must say that I loved the roast chicken. I had so much leftovers as well that it made for great wraps for the rest of the week. I hope we get to see the roast chicken again! Something I did not like was the lamb meatballs, but not because of the recipe. I simply cannot find lean lamb, and I found the meatballs really fatty. I went to see my doctor and apparently I have high cholesterol. No more fatty meat for me! I may start switching some meals for the vegetarian option (much to the horror of my husband!)

Exercise Review

Got one workout in this week, and then got sick again. I am so SICK OF BEING SICK!! My first 5k is this weekend, and I hope I am recovered by then. I was really hoping to be able to run the whole thing, but I can’t seem to run any longer than 5 minutes. Even if I can run 5, walk 5, run 5 walk 5 for the duration I will be super happy!

I’ve never completed a challenge before, but this week I decided to have a go. What am I in for? 600 step ups!!

I really didn’t want to work out today, but I did it anyways. I’m a bit worried about my 5k next weekend. I’ve been sick for 2 weeks and was only able to start exercising again today. Rough. I’m starting pretty slow.

I did manage to get some step-ups in after my run today. Not the 100 that I needed in order to stay on track with the challenge, but I did do 40! That may not seem like much to you, but hey, YOU get out there and do some step ups after running!! It’s not as easy as it looks!

Want to join me in doing this challenge? Here’s a photo of how to do a step-up taken from Michelle Bridges’ 12 Week Body Transformation:

In January I signed up for the Michelle Bridges’ 12 week body transformation. I was super gung-ho, completed all the pre-season tasks, and was very diligent… for the first 3 weeks. I was just starting to see some pretty cool changes and a couple of other people even noticed too! I suppose “life” got in the way after that though, and I fell off the wagon. Here and there I would get back on but it just didn’t stick. I had discussed with my husband that I wouldn’t be signing up for Round 2. I’m not sure what happened, but I signed up for Round 2 anyways. I just love having meal plans all ready to go, and a shopping list that I can just print out and go. I HATE making shopping lists and deciding what I’m going to eat… so for me, it’s totally worth it to pay the money.

Now, since I did pay the money I also want to get my money’s worth. In the last challenge, without doing it wholeheartedly I went from 93.8 kg in pre-season to 90.6 kg. That’s not too bad for a half-ass attempt. I really want to break down what I did wrong so that I can get it right this time and (hopefully) lose the post-caesar belly.

TOP TIPS FOR GETTING THE BEST RESULTS ON THE 12WBT

1. You will probably, at some point, go over your calorie allowance for the day. Maybe more than once. GET OVER IT AND DO BETTER TOMORROW. This is NOT an excuse to make your husband get in the car and drive straight to Baskin Robbins to bring you home a pint of peanut butter chocolate ice cream. Everyone messes up sometimes, and you don’t have to throw in the towel. Just try again.
2. Stop weighing yourself every day. Make it a surprise on a Wednesday.
3. When your husband comes home with Hungry Jacks breakfast of champions for you, don’t feel bad saying “no thanks.” That stuff is disgusting anyways and you always think to yourself afterwards that it wasn’t as good as you remembered.
4. Your husband is not on the program so stop using him as an excuse. He will NEVER get up with you and the baby at 6am and he will NOT go to the gym with you. Who cares? This is about YOU, not him! Drop the baby off at the gym’s creche and get your workout done! He will come around when he is good and ready. 
5. Make sure to eat your snacks. Remember that you need to eat every 3 hours or so, so that your blood sugar doesn’t drop too much. If your insulin is kicking in too much it means your body will be tricking itself to store fat on the next meal(s). You’re not doing yourself any favours by skipping the snacks. Keep a stack of yogurt cups in the fridge for the times when you just can’t be bothered to cut up veggies or make something else. 
6. If the baby is sick, or you are sick don’t feel bad about skipping a workout. I know everyone is all “JFDI” and all… but let’s be real for a moment. Sometimes it’s not going to happen and that’s ok. It doesn’t mean “skip exercising altogether for the rest of the program.” It means, when you feel better get back into it and in the meantime stay on the meal plan! Nutrition is probably 80% of weight loss and exercise is 20%. Having said that, skipping exercising shouldn’t be happening all the time. I’m talking about special circumstances. 
7. Don’t make anything that hubby really dislikes because he will go out and buy something naughty that will tempt you. There is an awesome new feature in the 12wbt meal plan. You can “customize” the meal plan to change any meals you (or your partner) don’t like.  This automatically updates the shopping list! Too easy!
8. Stop obsessing. This is not your life. It is only one small part of your life, and you’re planning on continuing eating and exercising for the rest of your life. Don’t stress, just make it happen.

I think that about sums it up. I just need to stay relaxed about it. I tend to obsess over everything which throws me in to a tailspin if I mess up at all which prompts me to throw in the towel. I don’t have to do that. I actually LOVE the meal plans because it takes the stress out of it. This program is totally do-able. I am going to… well… JFDI