Ali J Art & Illustration

Fitness Challenge - Day 15

So I totally suck at actually keeping up to date everyday with the blog with all the challenges that I've placed on myself.  I *should* just post for a few minutes every night, but I forget and get distracted.

This past week has been awful in regards to fitness.  I've been so ridiculously busy, and stressed, and tired, I've done little else other then walk the dogs, do light stretches and choose to walk up/down stairs instead of using escalators/lifts.  Also making an effort to walk anywhere I can instead of drive.

Now let us see if anything has changed these past two weeks since I decided I'd keep tabs on my fitness.  Today is the dreaded day I have to re-measure myself.  I know I'm definitely more toned because my clothes are literally starting to fall off.  Good... and bad when you've got nothing else to wear!

Measurements

Bust - 104cm NOW 102cm
Waist - 92cm NOW 90cm
Hips - 115cm NOW 113cm
Arm - 31cm NOW 29.5cm
Thigh - 64cm NOW 65cm
Weight - around 85 kg  (Aim = 72kg) NOW - not weighing in
Size - 14  (Australian) NOW 12-14

Well I'm definitely surprised by the results.  I also wonder how much more I can push myself in a weeks time when my studies finish.

Fitness Challenge - Day 9

I feel awful.  Sometimes, no matter how much I plan to do something, it just doesn't happen.  So.... let me recap on my fitness challenge for the past few days.

Day Four

Walked the dogs for 30 minutes.  Was really hard to drag myself out of bed, stayed up way too late on the phone the previous night (around 3am).  Missed 3 buses and 2 trains.  Ended up walking 7km today in heeled boots to compensate for running so late.  Across grass, sand, pavement, and plenty of stairs.  By the time I saw Mr R that afternoon my feet were covered in blisters, one that was me entire big toe.  Damn it.

Food = Mr R and I cooked up a storm.  For dinner we had some pasta, chicken and vegetable dish - nice and healthy.  Lots of fruit!  yum!  Lunch was honey on bread, and afternoon snack was a mini home made pizza on pita bread.  Because lunch was so late (3pm) I really struggled with sugar levels at around 10am, and we did a late dash out to grab some chocolate.

Day Five

It is the weekend.  Great.  Feet covered in blisters still.  Staying at Mr R's, which of course means I only have my boots to wear, so I have to wear them again.  Went into Fremantle for a day out, walked around, and we were quite active outdoors.  Walked about 4km.  Then went to my house, walked dogs for 30 minutes.  By the time we got back to Mr R's that night my feet had even more blisters, 9 at last count.  Double damn it.

I think I lost heaps of weight though just in adrenaline, my heart has been racing like crazy all day.  I decided that I need to overcome my fear of the motorbike by riding around on it a lot, so we did. Let's just say my heart was racing faster then a marathon, and my stomach was hollow.  Funny thing is that it is easier to ride the bike with my eyes closed then eyes open (of course I'm always the passenger.  LOL)  Something that I have to work on still.

Food = for the first time in about 2-3 years I had a drink.  We shared a bottle of champagne, strawberries and played board games.  For dinner we had homemade pizzas on pita bread.  Lunch was takeaway chinese.  Breakfast was cereal & milk.  yum!!  Naughty moments though - Mr R treated me to a few peices of Honeycomb when we were out.  But I don't feel too bad, we definitely walked enough to walk it off.

Day Six

Oh oh.  There is a problem today.  I don't know when I did it, but at some stage I've injured my back.  I've pulled one of my muscles and struggle to sit up, sit down, bend at all or turn.  Not good.  It was either from the many motorbike rides or sleeping in a strange bed.  Mr R put gel onto my back, but didn't check the tube properly.  He put heaps on without realising it was extra strength gel.  Smelly stuff for injuries that at first feels like ice, then heats up the affected areas.  Well this didn't just heat up my back, it felt as though it was literally burning.  He massaged the area quite intensely and forced the pain forward, I will admit that I cried a bit.  But the pain was worth it, because there was hardly any pain later on.

Walked the dogs for 30 minutes.  Food = we had chicken burgers for lunch, and I had some quiche for dinner.  Breakfast was cereal with soy milk & a banana.

Day Seven

Walked the dogs for 30 minutes.  Today was lightning, thunder and rain - I really didn't want to go out and exercise.  So I didn't. Still recovering from the back pain & blisters.  Silly me just gave myself another two by wearing shoes without socks.  =( 

Food = no money for groceries this week, so need to use up what I have in my freezer.  Dinner was pumpkin pie & potatoes, lunch was lasagne.  Breakfast was weetbix, bananas and sultanas with a little bit of lactose free milk.

Day Eight

Walked the dogs for 30 minutes.  Panicked a bit when Cash smacked his head and looked as though he was bleeding from the eye.  Thank goodness he wasn't, he just cut himself above it.  Still, it looked awful.  Crappy weather again, my mood is crappy today too.  I'm finding it hard to pull myself away from my job, motivation to exercise isn't there.

Food = Dinner was lasagne & potatoes.  Lunch was spaghetti.  Breakfast was weebix, sultanas and a little bit of lactose free milk.

Day Nine

Walked the dogs for 30 minutes.  Went to a course for work today, walked about 3 km.  Chose the stairs everytime I was presented with an option (eg, lift, escalator).  Motivation is sliding, must really get back into exercising properly tomorrow.  Stress is getting to me.

Food = Dinner was lasagne & potatoes.  Lunch was a teriyaki chicken bento (takeaway).  Breakfast was an apple.  Had a few glasses of apple juice to compensate for such a bad breakfast.  Snacked on a sticky bun, couldn't finish it and it made me feel sick the rest of the day.  Must stop these crappy snacks and find some way of keeping energy up.  Mainly it happens when I skip a meal or for some reason have a really really late meal - never by choice.

Fitness Challenge - Day Three

Day Three, Week One

Exercise

35 minutes - 3km run on a path along the beach up and down sand dunes.  Only stopped twice to do pushups.  Ran through sand & did a few stairs too.

Came home then take the dogs for a 30 minute session at the park, did stretches.  Attempted one situp, and failed.  =(  I tried it on concrete because the grass was wet.  Bad idea.

Power walked 2km to and from class, combining about 200 stairs in the process.

Food
Breakfast - A bowl of cereal which was Weetbix, banana and sultanas with very little lactose free milk.

Lunch -  Corn patties.  Yum!. 

Dinner -  Quiche.  Then starving, I cooked up a couple of pikelets too.

Snacks - An apple. 

Feeling - Tired.  Annoyed that I'm not eating enough to compensate for the high exercise, so I feel a little lethargic.  But I'm away for most of the weekend and grocery shopping has to wait until Monday, and the fridge has little else but fruit and pickled onions.....

Fitness Challenge - Day Two

Day Two, Week One

Exercise

1 hr 20 minutes.  9km run along the beach through soft sand, spent the whole time going across rocks, dodging seaweed, being eaten by little fly things and racing the high tide (and losing - I got soaked).  Every year this beach seems to get smaller - and there wasn't much beach to run on this morning!  Then, because I'm crazy, when I got halfway through the run I found cool wood that I wanted to paint on, 6 different logs/types/shapes in total, so picked them all up and carried/balanced it all the way back to the car.  Yep, still balancing on rocks, dodging seaweed and racing the tide.  The wood was about 15kg in total so my arms got a major workout.

Came home then take the dogs for a 30 minute session at the park, did stretches.  Enjoyed spending the rest of the day sitting down!

Food
Breakfast - Much better time today = 10am.  I find I can't eat it before a morning exercise session, so I wait until afterwards.  A bowl of cereal which was Weetbix, banana and sultanas with very little lactose free milk.

Lunch -  12.30pm.  Decided to mix it up today.  Eggs, tomato and multi grain bread, light margarine. 

Dinner -  6pm.  Pumpkin pie with lettuce.

Snacks - An apple.  A muffin, a small slice of apple cake.

Feeling - Great!  I can't believe how easy it was to run this morning, I wasn't as sore as I thought I'd be.  My body has a good recovery rate.  I am a bit lethargic though which makes the stress a little harder to handle.

Fitness Challenge - Day One

So... a new year, a new life, a new me.  Great!  The thing is though if I want to be fit mentally, I have to be fit physically.  I'm learning very quick that whatever you feel will feed throughout everything - life, relationships, business, health.  I mentioned to a few people that I would start blogging about this new challenge - and so many were horrified about the idea.  They suggested I start different blogs up - a food one, a fitness one, and keep them anonymous to save me from embarrassment.  That blogs should be cool, and I should write about cool stuff.  I was pretty quick in my reply, that I would do no such thing.  I got myself into this state, I need to face facts and accept that before I can turn things around and get myself out of it.  That my blog is a personal blog, and a business blog, and a cool blog combined.  The Biggest Loser on T.V. doesn't just have the shock factor at the beginning for viewing pleasure, it is a wake up call to the contestants.  This is mine.

I am overweight, I am cuddly, and I'm sick of feeling lethargic and at times depressed.  At the same time I don't want to be skinny = I just want to be fit and stay fit.  My pledge from today is to exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes a day, eat healthy, and keep track of everything I do and eat to commit to this.  Everyday I must post about my food/exercise for the day and every 2 weeks I must measure myself.  Most of all I must stay honest, otherwise what is the point?

Day One, Week One

Exercise

1 hr 10 minutes.  7km (estimate) run of 10 laps around a carpark near the beach and 2845 stairs.  Came home then take the dogs for a 30 minute session at the park, did stretches.  2km walk to and from my night class.

Food
Breakfast - Had it way too late (11.30am, after all my exercise).  A bowl of cereal which was Weetbix, banana and sultanas with very little lactose free milk.

Lunch - Way too late (2pm).  Quiche with lettuce.

Dinner - Had it way too late (9.30pm, after my night class)  Quiche with lettuce.

Snacks - An apple and a banana.

Feeling - Good, probably could have done more/ ran faster with the exercise.  Looking forward to this challenge but need to pull my food times into order.  I can already feel that I'm going to be sore tomorrow but at least I have energy for the moment.

Measurements

Bust - 104cm
Waist - 92cm
Hips - 115cm
Arm - 31cm
Thigh - 64cm
Weight - around 85 kg  (Aim = 72kg)
Size - 14  (Australian)