Sick as bro

This week has been a total wipe out. I've been so sick and haven't done any exercise except on Sunday.  Zumba is on tonight but I would die.So you don't get exercise stuff or photos of me until the weekend.

I will link you this great article A Fearless First: Spin Class.  Hilarious. This explains why I haven't done too much on the bike like I had planned. I'm puttin off buying a seat cover - I don't know why.

I did buy myself some new dumbells - 2kg (thats 4 poundish) and a swiss ball that were on sale. I really wanted 1.5kg so I will see how I go once they arrive.  I might surprise myself.

Being sick means that I have lost a bit of weight this week. I need to come up with a weighting routine, I'd better research this a little more.

Although I wasn't physically productive this week - I did manage to read the Hunger Games series. 2 days of just being in bed, and being a fast reader helps. My sister-in-law recommended it. I now know what this means:

Week,,, wait what week is this? 19.

What's Motivating Me This Week?
Back to school, keeping up a good routine.

What's Puzzling Me This Week?




My scales arrived this week but there is a pretty big difference between what the Wii says and what these scales say. I'll post about it later.

What's Bugging Me This Week?
Not much actually. 

What's Encouraging Me This Week? 
My calves are awesome.

What's the Plan?
Get walking again, the music and the exercise will really get me going in the mornings. 
Fitting in the bike rides.
Did 'Jullian Michael's Cardio Kickbox' this morning. I was a little frightened but I did alright!  I did a little better then the easy option, next week I'll 'kick' it up a notch.

 

Let's talk about boobs

Yesterday I saw this hilarious comic called, Busty Girl Comics. All of the comics spoke to me, because they are all so true!

I'm posting two that relate to my blog today, but you MUST go the actual website and read all of them!

I have lost count the amount of times I have said that last bit!

This is me when I do star jumps. 

Star jumps is too pretty a name for the torture that they bring me.

As a women with the hugest boobs that I have ever seen - I know that there are people bigger than me but I've never met them - I really don't get much of a choice of sports bras. I look at my friends and the people in exercise vids with envy.

The bra that I use, Energize by Elomi, is here (Brava) and here (Big Girls Don't Cry).  It's not pretty, it comes in black, white and skin. I wear them every day - for exercise and for work because they do a very good job, most of the time, except when I have to jump. I do have a few 'nice' bras for when I want to feel pretty.

I saw these, D+ Max by Shock Absorber, at Brava yesterday, and saw that the blue ones were on sale. I'm in between a HH and J cup, so luckily they had a HH in my size, in stock.  I can't wait to wear it - probably over my Energize bra.

 

The other bra that I would like to try is this one,  Triaction High Performance. It's obviously not for jumping in and it's not as stylish as the D+ Max.

The only other sports bra that I have tried and can get in my size is this, Impact Free by Royce. It fits well, and is quite comfortable, but it has a huge chunk of Velcro on the back that can stick into you and make tearing noises when you move. The bottom band also flips up on me. I rarely use this one.

So there you go, a 'brief' discussion about bras, being that there is so few choices available to me :)

Edit: Wearing the D+ Max over the Energize is awesome. These puppies only move a litte. It is a little uncomfortable under the arm with the two layers squishing everything in but I think that is a small price to pay for not having to worry about bouncing boobs.

Frack Yeah!

Okay, although I missed a few days, I am officially finished the 'Shape Up - Front' challenge!

I'm drenched in sweat as I type this, but feeling pretty chuffed with myself.  I ditched the bench dips for this last one, basically I cried everytime I did it because it hurt my shoulders and my wrists in a not good way - instead I did some extra weights exercises that you do in the video anyway.

What other modications did I do? I can't jump very well - my boobs, even in my sports bar, just can't handle that so instead I high knee jogged whenever I had to jump. For the horizontal mountain climbers I had been doing the easier version but today I went up to the harder level.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's measuring - I really hope to see some difference.

Power on!

So, the Easter long weekend kind of stuffed up my plan. We went camping and then C stayed at home and convinced me lay on the couch all day watching the X Files with him and enjoying each other's company. 

I did however download a new app, Get Running, which is for running obviously, but I'm using it on our bike. I did the first 'run' last night. It's quite good, except today I have a sore butt because the bike seat isn't the most comfortable - I'll have to take a squiz at it later.

I do have to say that I feel really strong and fit at the moment. My husband often makes fun of me that I wiggle whenever I hear music, but lately I've actually been dancing and kicking as well - just because I can.

I was reading this article about the phases of fitness - I'm pasting them here but please read the original article.

•  Excitement and Highly Motivated
•  Doubt Toward Goals
•  Conquer Doubt
•  Total Change in Energy Level / Confidence
•  Make New Fitness Goal / Challenge

I can really see how the phases happens for me, I've only just gotten over the doubt step and hopefully into the conquering bit, I just now have do some exercise. Tomorrow I'll get on the bike again and kick some arse with the Shape Up - Front DVD.

I'm procrastinating doing Sparkpeople quizzes instead of exercising - lol.

After I exercise I will reward myself with a long hot bath. Come on! Let's go!

My thoughts

After my workout this morning and after I bought my scales, I read 'Sweet Poison'.

The first thing I checked was if there was a list of references or a bibliography. There really wasn't. This didn't put me in good stead for the actual book.

It was an entertaining read, it was interesting, it reflected a lot of my training in nutrition, but it was a persuasive text rather than an analytical text.  It was persuading me that fructose was basically evil and that I need to cut it out of my diet - which yes I agree with - but it made out that correlations between data sets was actual proof that fructose was the only cause for western affluent diseases, like heart attacks. Overall it was a great way to spend most of my day, and made me feel guilty about wanting to eat a Creme Egg.

We then went to dinner at a friend’s house. They had found a food diary app and have been filling in theirs.  My own food diary app keeps crashing and so I had given up. Therefore I was interested in this new one, MyFitnessPal. It’s pretty cool so far.  Before I plugged in my details I needed to know how much I weighed – so I used their Wii Fit. I'm 96.5 Kg, I guessed 95 so I wasn’t too far off. This puts me in the obese category - surprise surprise.

My friend’s husband was being very defensive about the whole keeping a food diary issue – as in, he kept defending his food choices and his lifestyle and about why he shouldn’t have to keep one, but I don’t see a problem with it unless it becomes absorbing.  These sorts of things are, in my opinion, good to keep you honest about the foods you eat (no more lying to yourself) and gives you a ‘rough’ guide to how well you are going. Even after eating a Creme Egg I was still below my suggested calories.

I also had to give myself a goal weight. I picked 80. It seems like a nice number.  So far I think my only goal has been to lower my hip to waist ratio, which is still 0.86.  Grrr.

The other cool thing about today was that I saw an image for iwonstopuntilimtiny.timblr.com – which is now http://iwontstopuntilimfit.tumblr.com/

I think that is pretty clever, except I don’t want to use rubber bands, maybe I can make up elastic beaded bracelets.  I drink from a 1.5 L bottle, so I suppose I take one off every time I have a huge drink? Or maybe I put one on, every time I have a huge drink. Let me think about this some more.

Holy cow, what an essay?

I did it

I finally bought scales.  I read through the Choice article on body fat scales, and decided to buy a Soehnle Body Balance Shape F4. They seemed easier for me to buy. I also bought a pedometer just to see how many steps I do a day.

Just finished that DVD again, going strong(er).  Some of it I'm finding easier to do, I'm getting a little faster.  I also problem solved the lack of bench, I pulled out the base of our lounge - it's a little too wide but it has made the routine more fluid. I also found having the Playstation controller near me means I can pause the DVD while I get into position - yep our Playstation acts as our DVD player. We also have a computer hooked up to our TV. We have no TV stations tuned in at the moment - come on digital TV!

Bonus photo of my lounge!

However, Squish the cat seems to think that this is now his pedastool, really annoying when I'm in the middle of the DVD.

I'm dying

I just finished that 'Shape Up - Front' DVD.

I woke up this morning feeling a little sore, tomorrow I will need to be fork lifted out of bed.

Once again I didn't work as fast as the video and I don't know how many times your have to lie down only to get back up again - I am so much slower at doing this than Ms Michael wants.

I also poked a hole in the seam of my pants because I kept having to pull them up. The perils of exercising!

Plan B?

Once again my plans this week came tumbling down in an avalanche.  I should have expected it, considering it was my last week of school where you need to expect the least expected.

Tuesday: Instead of Zumba we were asked out for dinner. We went to dinner.

Wednesday: In the morning I did the kickboxing video and the Sparkpeople workout, and in the evening I did do a 2 mile walk video but played my own music - so much better!

Thursday:  Kickboxing - I have to say this won't be appearing my my plans again.  My shoes are just too grippy for the footwork needed and when I went bearfoot I got cramps in my foot arches.

Friday: Sparkpeople workout. I actually love her stuff.

Saturday: My rest day - I was going to hop on the bike for a little bit but found a visiting child had played with the settings so I need to find some tools to change things back to normal permenantly.

Sunday - Today: I did Jullian Michael's 'Shape Up - Front'. Stupid me didn't watch the video first, so by the second last exercise I was like 'when is this going to end?' I also don't own a step so I kind of made it work.Was sooo hard, I didn't go at the speed the presenters did, but this will be my holiday challenge. 


What's Motivating Me This Week?
The challenge

What's Puzzling Me This Week?
Should I make another pair of 3/4 leggings? The latest pair I have made are already feeling loose, I keep having to pull them up.

What's Bugging Me This Week?
That I have a whole box of Cadbury Creme Eggs in the fridge - very dangerous. C came home from work and said 'I have a present for you, but your going to hate me.' Once I realised what it was and got over the shock, I was like yelling because that is the most awesome present I have ever gotten from him - probably. Once I calmed down C was was saying that it was probably the worst thing he could have done since I'm trying so hard to lose weight.  I explained to him, that I'm not really doing this to lose weight, but to get fitter. That gave me a bit of a reality check - because haven't I been fussing over the fact that I haven't been getting slimmer? In reality I feel so good and strong at the moment, even though I still look so flabby.
  


What's Encouraging Me This Week? 
Remembering that this is about me feeling healthy not about me looking slim.


What's the Plan?
Everyday I will complete the 'Shape Up - Front' video. Tuesday and Thrusday I will also do 'Walk Away the Pounds' 2 mile walk with my own music.