Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred

I have just done the toughest workout of my life!

Last night I discovered that you can watch the 30 Day Shred on youtube, and this afternoon after taking the dog for a walk, I completed all 20 minutes of Level 1.

OH. MY GOSH. It was tough! I really can’t believe I did it all. After I finished I had created little puddles of sweat on my yoga mat.

Wow, it really does work all of your muscles and gets your heart rate up. Jillian is a very good motivator, and constantly tells you not to give up.

Doing such a strenuous workout really puts you in the frame of mind not to spoil all your effort by eating dessert and not to over-eat. It also helps that I got rid of the remaining tub of sugary frozen yoghurt last night

Now I’m going to have a nice light dinner of vegetarian soup I made last night.

C25K: Week 2!

Today was a very good day, fitness-wise.

I took my dog out for a walk in the morning (although not for very long because he apparently wasn’t in the mood for going for walkies) but in the late afternoon I downloaded the second week of the Couch to 5k program, and I got through it all, with energy to spare! I must say that the second to last and last runs were tough. Fortunately I paid close attention to my breathing to make sure that I didn’t get a stitch, but just before I finished I got pain in my right shoulder :/

I’m hoping to continue week 2 next week, provided that cyclone Hamish doesn’t affect the south-eat coast too badly!

Well, I had a much healthier day, eating and fitness-wise than I had over the last few days.

It turns out that my not eating dessert after dinner didn’t get off to a good start. On Monday and Tuesday night I had sugary and fattening desserts, and over-ate out of habit.

I kind of redeemed myself a little and did the third session of the C25K program. Technically this means I can move onto week 2! Also, I didn’t over-eat at dinner, and although I had snacks afterwards, it was because I was genuinely hungry. I ate mostly fruit and resisted chocolate and frozen yoghurt.

Hopefully I can continue this trend in the coming days! This afternoon while I was running I got a stitch in my side, so I researched how to prevent them and found this helpful page:

http://makeithappen.com/wis/readings/sidest.html

I’ve been making an effort to fit some exercise into these past few days, because as soon as I go a short while without being active I find it hard to get back into my routine. I had my hour-long tennis coaching on Saturday and I took the dog for a walk this afternoon, so those are positives.

However, it’s time to face the fact that my eating habits are effectively sabotaging my efforts to slim down (and have undoubtedly contributed to me gaining around 6 kilos since mid 2008).

I thought it would be a good idea to set myself a goal for this week. One eating habit that I’ve formed is having dessert after dinner. Every night. The food I eat isn’t always sugary or fattening, but most of the time I eat purely out of habit.

One solution I think will work is to brush my teeth after dinner. Oral hygiene is something I’m a bit OCD about, and I think that if I give my teeth a thorough cleaning that I’ll be far less likely to turn to snacks.

I’m not going to deprive myself entirely, though. On Saturdays and Sundays I will allow myself a treat, perhaps a scoop of low fat Bulla frozen yoghurt or a piece of dark Lindt chocolate.

I’ll keep tabs on how I go for sure!

Exercise Update

Monday: completed Day 2, Week 1 of the C25K program. Found it more difficult the second time around, due to getting a stitch near completion.

Yesterday: went for a 15-20 minute jog/walk in the afternoon, then took my dog out for a short walk afterwards.

I had a not-so-shocking revelation the other night, when I tried on a pair of my jeans, that up until last Winter, still fit me. I couldn’t get them half way up my thighs I really must do something about this.

Exercise Log

On Saturday I had my usual hour of tennis coaching. My serve has really improved, yay!

Today I took my dog for a walk around the block. I had planned to do another session of the C25K program on Friday, except there was a thunderstorm in the afternoon. Not the best conditions for running in! Am going to get back on that wagon tomorrow.

No Excuses

A great motivational clip from Nike. Just do it!

C25k: Day 1, Week 1

Despite feeling like doing nothing else apart from settling down with the newest issue of Frankie magazine this afternoon, I put on my running shoes and went out to re-attempt the Week 1 podcast after I got rained out yesterday.

And you know what? I did it from start to finish! A whole 30 minutes of exercise! I’m rather proud of this effort.

I remembered to pace myself and not run too fast, I took sips from a waterbottle (I’m so glad I remembered to take this) and I did the warm-up and cool-down as advised. I must say that the last 30 seconds or so were hard, but I pushed through it. Go team me!

I’m going to do the same level on Friday afternoon (or morning, depending on whether I can drag myself out of bed!)

Couch to 5k: Week One

In my determination to embrace running as my new favourite sport, I downloaded the podcast for Week 1, and put it on my trusty iPod shuffle.

The first week of the program isdesigned to get you running three times a week. It begins with a brisk 5 minute warm up, then there is eight sets of 60 second interval runs. A 90 second recovery follows each interval, and it finishes with a 5-minute cool down.

Unfortunately, it started to rain almost as soon as I started out. I only made it past the 3rd running interval. All in all I probably only did about 11 minutes. But I’m going to try again tomorrow! Hopefully the weather will be more favourable.

A couple more useful links

Ariela from bakingandbooks shares her story and some helpful advice about how she ate her cake and lost weight too.

Part 1: http://www.bakingandbooks.com/2009/01/05/how-i-ate-my-cake-and-lost-weight-too-part-1/

Part2 : http://www.bakingandbooks.com/2009/01/16/how-i-ate-my-cake-and-lost-weight-too-part-2/

Be sure to check out the delicious-looking recipes on her site, too!