Cleaning mind, body & soul, rather than the house!

I trained Monday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. Karlie, who is featured in this month's Profile magazine joined me on Wednesday and Thursday. I have been training with her for about 4 weeks and just thought she was tall and slim. Having now seen what she looked like before, the difference is fantastic. What is great is that she is continuing to train and makes time to exercise every day. She is much better at running than me. I put it down to short legs (mine!!) but I hope to one day be able to run better and for much longer.

On Monday I was all on my own so benefitted from a one-to-one session with Bianca. She pushed me really hard and I must admit, I have struggled recently, both a little on the exercise bit, but the eating bit of the programme. My weight hasn't changed, in the last 4 weeks, which is really depressing. I am sure my body has, but I still have fat and horrible days where my size 16 sports pants still fit me snugly and then I have days where I could do one of those funny 'before & after' pictures where you hold out your 'before' whilst still wearing them.

It shows how funny our bodies can be, changing from one day to the next so dramatically. Combine that with our paranoid women minds and we find we can be beating ourselves up for something our body is doing all on it's own at certain times of the month whether we starve, drink water, exercise, or eat cake!!

So if I am totally 100% honest, I am tonight feeling low about my body. Some days I feel my body doesn't look like it should after 12 weeks of hard work, nor weigh what it should. I would have loved to have lost more weight, but then who doesn't want that miracle diet, where we are our ideal weight in 4 weeks! I know deep down, that I have done really well and that I have faced many hurdles along the way and overcome them. So here is what I tell myself

• I have gained muscle and am therefore stronger, both in body and mind
• I am sleeping better
• I have more energy
• I look better
• I have lost over a third of my over-all weight loss target
• I can run for 4 minutes
• I can touch my toes during stretches

So I have one final week of my 12 week programme to go and then my 'after' pictues will be published, just like Karly's. I only hope I can do justice to the programme and as I said before, stimulate people like me, with low esteem, who feel overweight and have tried every diet, who look after everyone else, before looking after themselves and help them realise that unless we (mums, workers, wives, homemakers, taxi's, business women) are fit, healthy and have the energy to cope with all the stuff thrown at us on a day to day basis, loads of the other stuff never works.

So my lesson is, look after yourself, get active, eat healthily, sleep well, don't worry about the small stuff, don't beat yourself up about the cleaning. Does it matter if the ironing isn't done or the dusting is left for a few days? Nothing bad is going to happen if I don't mop the floor or tidy the girls bedroom. Don't put off the walk or the jog because of housework. Start enjoying being you, enjoy the sunshine and get 'you' to be the happiest, heathiest and most energised you can as there are such great benefits and I am only just beginning to work out what they are.

Athough I am coming to the end of the initial challenge, I will still continue to exercise and lose weight to become the weight my 5 foot 1 frame is happy with, and then maintaining it for many years to come. Bianca's lessons, passion and drive will help me get there I am sure.

Please feel free to leave me a comment as I would love to know how many people this blog has affected. I really want to continue with a regular exercise programme with Bianca, Sasha and Seb for a couple more months. Take me up until December so I can get slimmer and fitter for the summer and treat myself to a bikini for Christmas! From there, I dream to be into a routine where I am incorporating exercise into my daily and weekly routine and it not feel at all strange or alien!

Right, I need to go to bed and get off sitting on my butt at this PC. I am up bright and early at the local gym for a 6am circuit work-out before coming home and sorting packed lunches, readers, hairbrushing etc.... you know the routine...

One week to go until D-day. Update you next week and look out for my before and after photo's posted on this site!

Early Morning Energy

Before I met Bianca, I looked on her website and read her blog and one thing that stuck out was the fact she was up incredibly early and off exercising before dawn. I thought she was mad. How could anyone survive on a few hours sleep and wake up with energy to burn. I have always suffered from "Just another 5 minutes" syndrome when the alarm goes off. Although I couldn't get to sleep last night until after midnight, as the room was a bit stuffy and I have a few things on my mind, I was still awake and reading at 5.20 and not feeling too tired. One of my aims at the start of this challenge was to capture this energy Bianca wrote about and I sleep better, get up earlier and have found this energy which is fantastic. Between 5.30 and 7am I can get lots done. I iron, read, write my blog (!), watch the sunrise, catch up on emails and best of all, get to see and speak to my husband while he has his breakfast before heading off to work in Brisbane just before six.


Last week was tough, Monday I struggled through the class. It was really hot and the dust from the recent storm was still hanging in the air. Both Karlie and I got quite puffed and breathless and at one point when I was running and imagining I was being chased by a tiger (the only way I can get round the circuit sometimes!), I actually thought " let the bugger eat me" I felt that knackered.


Wednesday, I missed the class as I was at the airport picking up my mother in law who is staying with us for a month. On Thursday I went to the session and met Karlie and Kirsty but Seb was nowhere to be seen. We did a warm up and some stretches and then waited a while longer. I called Bianca and left a message as we thought the session may have been changed back to Fridays. On the way home, Bianca called back and said Seb had been there waiting near the tennis courts, which were blocked by some trees from where we were waiting in the hut where we train on Mondays and Wednesdays. So I am back today and as I said last week, going back having missed two sessions in a row, is really hard. Though I did go to our local gym in Mapleton on Friday morning from 6-7am and did an hours circuit training which hurt, then stomped round Aussie Zoo for most of the day (but avoided being chased by the tigers!) before coming home and going out to work in a restaurant waitressing, so I suppose I must have exceeded the recommended 10,000 steps a day by a fair few!

Karlie, by the way, is featured in this month's 'Profile' magazine. I have only known her for 4 or 5 weeks, so to see the 'before' picture in the magazine was amazing. She was bridesmaid at a wedding this weekend and I bet she looked stunning. She had to change her dress from a size 12 to a 10. She must be very proud of the weight she has lost and how she has toned up. It will be me next and I hope I inspire people to sign up for Bianca's programme.

I have also found the last few weeks hard with having visitors, the kids off school and it being my birthday. I have still made better choices than before such as not having a cake and swapping chips for salad with my steak when I went out for my birthday meal, but have felt out of routine and have only been following the food plan about 60%.

I think this is the start of week 11, so I have the next two weeks to really pull my finger out, follow the plan, bring exercise back into my daily routine before the initial challenge comes to an end. My mother in law is supporting me and is happy to eat what I eat, so that makes it easier to prepare meals over the coming weeks and grab something healthy when we are out. We will also be active during the day, walking along beaches, doing the Glass House Mountains and visiting Kondalilla and Mapleton Falls, so fair bit of walking which should benefit both of us.

Don't know if she will be up as early though, but I like my time in the mornings, it's quiet. Any how it has reached 7am and the kids are up, that peace is broken, so off to tackle packed lunches, fill school bags, sort out uniform, do the school run and get to training on time!