week 9

ok. i think i might be the world's worst blogger. the problem is i am never with my computer when i get my inspirations, and then when i am in front of it, i have forgotten what i wanted to say. anyway, i'm sure i'm not unusual in that. however, today is a special day. IT'S MY BIRTHDAY AND I AM 50!!!!  AND I AM HAPPY!!!!!! i think turning 50 had to have been part of my motivation for engaging in this 12 week program, although i would not have admitted it at the time. i definitely wanted to change the way i felt, and the way i looked. i wanted to be one of those really fit women who paper my neighbourhood. you know the ones who are always out running or walking or at the gym, and you say to yourself,' how do they have the time? i am just too busy for that'. but silently, what you are really thinking is, boy they look great in that dress and i wish i felt the way they look. i wish i had their focus. i used to be so disciplined, but now i am just mush. i'll never get there. and i am sooooo jealous.
can i just say, 9 weeks on, a small miracle has taken place! my mother asked me this morning if i was happy to be 50, and i didn't hesitate in practically shouting yes! yes, i am in a great place and it is most definitely because of jc, and everyone else at the gym who have cajoled me into this program and encouraged me as i have progressed. i feel absolutely fantastic. and although i still have a ways to go, i am looking so much better. but most importantly, i feel so much better. i think i have lost 10 years off of my face and my physical being. i have energy. i bounce out of chairs and bound up the stairs (couldn't resist that one, but its still true).  i am getting compliments from friends who haven't seen me in a while. one even accused me of having that "pregnancy glow"  (god forbid).  i even think my eyes have changed colour a bit - must be the lack of alcohol.
i am unbelievably grateful to jc and his belief in what he is doing, because its definitely working, and working on so many different levels.  honestly, i was such a different person 9 weeks ago, and i couldn't have hoped for a better birthday present. so thank you to everyone at the gym, but especially jc. i am having the birthday i would have hoped for, but not dreamed was possible.

actually week 8

ok, i mis-counted. i am actually at the beginning of week 8. i'm sure by now you are not surprised that i got the maths wrong. (again). however, i have really good news! although i have not lost one single pound in 3 weeks and my body fat % went unchanged in this last 2 week period, i have lost 8.5cm from my waist and 3cm from my upper arms since i began this journey 7 weeks ago. yessssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!! so all is not lost, i will live to exercise another day, in fact i will live to embrace exercise for another day, and hope that the gods of the scale will smile on me and get over themselves and just show me a few pounds of loss-encouragement. is that really too much to ask? and i can hear jc snickering, no dismissing me outright for even getting on the scale, but after a lifetime of scale abuse, i girl can't just give it up so quickly.

week 7

ok, i have been negligent with my blog, but that is because jc has been working me out so hard that i have no brain left. i know i have touched on this subject before, but its true. for example, yesterday while i was attempting to train and really being just pretty pathetic , jc rather sweetly recognised how truely exaughsted i was, and we had a great conversation - all about training of course. i wanted to write about it, but i'm damned if i can remember anything we said. something to the effect of its alright because after all i am almost 50 and i just shouldn't expect as much from this tired body as, say, i would have at 35 or even 40. i have to stop, and listen, and respond because otherwise i will train myself into the ground and that won't do anybody any good. and, if i am too tired because i am not sleeping well, i won't loose any weight anyway. which, co-incidentally is just what happened. i didn't loose any body fat, or weight this 2 week period. excuse me, but that is really not fair. really? because i went away for 4 days and split a bottle of wine with my husband every night, i wipe away 2 weeks of hard work? not amusing, but very clear. no more wine for me for the rest of the 12 weeks. and lots and lots of lovely sleep!

week 5

OK I'M AWAKE NOW! so its, true, i haven't written in a while because, well because its all jc's fault. i have literally walked through the last two weeks in a complete haze. couldn't feel my body, and no brain. really no brain. i got on the tube for a meeting with my husband which he had reminded me oh about 10 times to bring the bank statements (because i warned him i was currently unreliable, as if he hadn't noticed). so, i put them in my bag first thing in the morning, so that i would not forget them.  then i checked for my oyster card in my bag before i left the house, like an organized person, because i own about 10 oyster cards already. i hobbled down to the station, got onto the tube, and about 7 stops down i start congratulating myself on how well i was doing, considering i could not feel my body as jc had killed me that morning. i looked down just to make sure i had it together, and of course, i had left the bank statements on the bench when i checked for the oyster card. the very same bench where i had left my husbands jacket he had asked me to bring when we met for the theatre two nights earlier. disaster. had to go home and retrieve them, making me very late to the meeting. and this morning, i couldn't divide 500 by 50. i mean, who messes that up? of course, i won't hesitate to say, numb brain aside, i am beginning to feel GREAT! i am stronger than i have been in years, i literally think my bum is made of, well, steel. and, although i am a rough piece of work in the mornings (and in general i am a smiley, happy morning person), i reach some unrecognisable, hyper-active ever-ready battery driven, obnoxoiusly optimistic thing by about 11 am and don't stop until 9pm. you may well ask if this is a good thing. i think my family is still working that out...

week 3 day 2

yesterday was reckoning day! how much had come off in two weeks? well, the results were not too bad.  a little over 2 kg, 1.4%body fat, or 17 mm were lost. gone baby gone! yeah! i confess i had weighed myself, so i knew roughly how much weight i had lost, but i was anxious to see if it correlated to a drop in my body fat, especially as jc always says he doesn't care a bit about pounds. so when i got excited about the body fat, which i am just beginning to get my head around as an alternative measure of dieting success, he tells me that its really about the millimetres, and that the result was good. whatever, i was happy. of course, i already knew it was working because i felt like i had dropped a good amount of weight/body fat/millimetres. oh, i forgot to say that additionally, i put on 1 kg of lean muscle mass, so my resting metabolic rate has gone up, and therefore, theoretically i am burning more calories just doing nothing. oh to do nothing! i have forgotten what that feels like. jc is killing me! no, more like he is incapacitating me, i come away from the gym unable to function i am so exhausted.  today was my second day this week, and i had already started yesterday declaring there was nothing left in me to give. so today i somehow get through my weight training, i'm sure i was pathetic, and up we went to the bike to do cardio.   as we have done on other sessions, one minute of pedalling at 40rpms and then 5-6 intervals of 30 seconds up and 75 seconds down start. "ok, go!" declares jc, and i push to begin my first interval of the day. nnnnnnnope. nothing happening.  "come on" says jc, "you can at least break 60". head down i really push, but again, the rpm's stay the same, and nothing happens. nothing except as small voice inside my head going nfw. "push!" he cries, and the voice perks up, NFW, NFW, NFW. it just wasn't there, i was trying, but clearly, i had reached the limit of my ability to work, and the voice was letting me know it.  fortunately jc must have heard the silent tirade, and said, okay, 15 minutes at 50. relief! i look ahead, and there is james doing his workout,  literally killing himself in front of me, dumbbells flying everywhere. 'why can't i do that?' i ask myself. 'is it a male thing? am i just a wimp?'  i redouble my efforts to no effect, i can't get the rpm's above 42, and my cardio session is cut to 10 minutes.  i am done.  i crawl home, the voice speaks again, 'now get into bed and take a nap', and blissfully, i listen.

week 3 day 1

can't stop thinking about eating cake, and i don't even like cake.  i fantasize about eating sugar! i never had this problem on a diet in my life.   clearly i am not destined to be one of the almost anorexics. fine. just give me a piece of chocolate please. now. i cannot wait until friday when i actually can have a piece of chocolate. i already have my eating schedule all lined up for my free day, and its busy. the worst part is, i know i will only be able to eat about a quarter of what is on my list, because i will be sick about three bites into anything i haven't been eating in the last three weeks. which means i won't actually be able to eating anything in my plan. i will have been digestively brainwashed(stomachwashed?). will i only want vegetables and the odd bit of protein from now on? omg.

day12

almost through two weeks! i can't wait til monday to see if my fat percentage has gone down. with as much green juice as i have thrown down my gullet, if there is no change then nobody within ten feet of me will be very happy. i have never eaten so many vegetables in my life. never. still waiting to float on that gloating cloud of 'i feel so good, no sugar for two weeks and i've never felt better!' thats not me yet. i'm on my second day of a headache, and i have not been warm other than in the bath for two weeks. weird. i am, however, getting in touch with the bitch within me. she has a very loud voice these days.