Challenge 2 - Day 9 - Dara

Well, definately time to regroup with Andrew. Noticing his absence the last few days. Don't think I realized how much motivation I got from his messages over the last few months. Anyway, Carla has also helped as usual keeping me going also! But at a point in my head where I need to figure out how to break this plateau. Flat on scales for the week and start of the week was brill on the workout front. Slipped for two days there but got a 3km walk in today with kids in tow in the double buggy.

Diet: good today, made a nice monster salad among other things, enjoyed a big brekkie also.

Excercise: enjoyed a 3km walk but should have done weights.

Mind: in need of motivational recharge, time to dig out Anthony Robbins for car journey to work tomorrow. Also need to regroup with mr. Andrew! Peed off I can't find my camera charger and have photos here on iPhone I took today (so appologies for shitty quality, was v. shaky for some reason). Also want to get skinfold test done as not sure how accurate my scales are now with bodyfat %. want to ensure I'm calculating my calories correctly.

Weight: 14st 10lbs 22% bodyfat
Flat with last week.

Challenge 2 - day 8 - Dara

Well today should have been proper photos weigh in etc, but discovered camera battery needs charging and cannot for life of me find the charger. I may just have to photograph tomorrow on iPhone. So I'll do a proper update tomorrow with photos and give a quick update for today.

Well another tough night with alex, didn't sleep great again, tired now and about to hit the sack.

Diet: Ended up a high carb today,and a little off track.

Excercise: null and void

Mind: honestly v tired today and had banging headache most of the afternoon, I felt a bit like dropping the ball, falling of the wagon and nearly blowing it all. Don't know why just a little frustration with progress I guess and tiredness. I wanted to do workout today but feel a bit guilty for not. However this is one day out of many. I'll get back on track tomorrow especially if I get a good sleep tonight.

Weight: 14st 11lbs, 22% bodyfat (yo-yo-ing up and down this week, very annoying)

Challenge 2 - Day 7 - Dara

Evening again... late here Friday night. Feeling quite tired this evening for some reason.
Anyway... here is the update for today...

Diet: Good, egg breakfast again, snacked on fruit, salad lunch, had protein shake and fruit in afternoon, plus a chicken sandwhich, Dinner was white fish on green veg.. I undercooked the veg so i didn't eat it all, finished off the day with toasted tuna sandwhich..was quite hungry later in the evening. So, it was supposed to be low carb, it wasn't too bad, a bit too much bread to be honest about it.

Excercise: took a rest day, was too late getting up to workout this am,then this evening I just was knackered so took time to chill, had a good week so far, so I'll make up tomorrow, which was going to be my rest day.

Mind: Still good, looking forward to weigh in and photos tomorrow to compare with last saturday. First official photo comparisson for day 1. Hoping Andy gets a chance to photograph or weigh in this weekend as he is away in manchester.

Weight: 14st 10lbs, 21% bodyfat - woo hoo, that was water weight..and it seems to have moved on out yesterday...so...Seeing the bodyfat % going down is v.good in my eyes...lets see it last!

untill tomorrow

Dara

Challenge 2 - Day 6 - Dara

Hmmm water retention on the scales again..me thinks. Looked into it a bit online and found some evidence that u can put on water weight particularly after increased excercise! Which would make sense, I doubt I could go up weight so rapidly when I'm in calorie defecit and excercising my ass off (literally)!

Diet: low carb- good egg brekkie, lunch was sandwiches/roll at work lunch, dinner good with salmon on green veg, then snacked on sardines on toast..probably not the best low carb day.

Excercise: did a 30 min walk on treadmill. Sweat was up but low -med intesity.

Mind: positive, keen to drop that extra weight I'm seeing, even though it's bodyfat% I really should worry about.

Weight: 14st 12lbs(water weight of 2lbs I hope)
Bodyfat was 21.8% (which would appear to be on downward trend). Well we'll see how we are tomorrow morn !

Good night

Challenge 2 - Day 5 - Dara

So, it's late, been working out, flaked on a bean bag! Really pushed myself tonight. Feeling good for it if wrecked, especially after rough nights sleep with alex having nightmares!

Excercise: weights; shoulders, chest, triceps and abs workout, did great at beating last Sundays weights/reps ensuring progressive resistance. Sure I'll feel it tomorrow. Also did 30 min cardio on treadmill which was also higher intensity than yesterdays cardio. Did nearly same distance in 10mins less time.

Diet: v good, spot on low carb, but did a study of my calories and see I need to eat more calories on my high calorie/carb days. Might help me zig zag more effectively. Increased water intake also.

Mind: still good, v focused on being stricter on my workouts

Weight: 14st11lbs. 22% bodyfat. Showing 1lb up today, not overly worried as that seems to happen when I have bad night sleep so probably water retention combined with previous day being high carb day, which I read today can sometimes give u heavier weigh in next day, which is sign it's working. We'll see if that's true!!!

Now to bed to get some important sleep!!!

12months from now - visualisation

Well,

this post is a little bit of fun, keep the spirits up!

These are some pics of how we will look come May 2010! (we hope!!!)

Challenge 2 - Day 4 - Dara

Evening readers (all 2 or 3 of you!! :) )
Well, here is todays progress.
Feeling tender in the muscles all over today, so I must be doing something right the last couple of days with my strength training. So, today been feeling a bit groggy/flabby.. don't know if you know what I mean. Some days you feel super lean, and others you feel flabby! Well today is a flabby day! Think its because last week after challenge 1 I took a break from the cardio I had been doing to do that bootcamp, which in hindsight I think was more a replacement for the weights than the cardio, so this week will be ensuring I have my stregth training to schedule and my cardio at least 3 times this week for 30-40mins min each session. My weigh in this morning threw me off a little, but I'd had a bad nights sleep so could explain it all.

Diet: High carb day today, so was on Oatmeal and protein shake for brekkie and a bananna, snacked on fruit + protein shake, had avocado & tuna in wholemeal pittas for lunch (probably could have been higher carb), and then had Burittos for dinner. Water consumption could have been better during the day, better in evening.

Excercise: Good today, was off day for muscles (no harm they need it), and was in on the treadmill for a 40min walk. Got good sweat up on it. So happy with that.

Mind: Head is getting more focused on the challenge. Feeling like this will be a bigger transformation than challenge 1..like I'm going to really step it up a notch and get the remaining weight off. I can feel the muscle underneath now and know that I just burn that layer of fat off it would make a big difference. Not easy, but if I maintain 2lbs a week over the next 12 weeks thats 24lbs, and I only want to lose 15-16lbs of fat at this stage. So I think its quite achievable..and allows for any hickups and plateaus along the way that I need to change my technique about for. Also glad to hear from Andrew via text that he's back in the gym working away. Looking forward to july 25th already!!

Weight: still at 14st 10lbs, bodyfat read at 23%, but I don't know, will probably be down to 22% again tomorrow, not sure why? anyway, weight is static at least, so cardio this week will hopefully push that down. Will try get a good night sleep tonight also and get that fat coming off.
Hoping for some drop in weight for sat. Hoping to see more more come off the bodyfat% each week. I was reading about how much should be possible and 0.5% off a week should be possible, meaning over a 12week period I will be capable of losing 6% bodyfat, bringing me down to my target of 16% bodyfat. I'll keep you posted, that will mean I'd need at 21.5% reading on saturday's weigh in. Still the rest of the week to go, so need to work my butt off.

So, here's looking forward to a good workout week! back in on shoulders, chest, abs tomorrow...but will also try get cardio done in morning prior to work.
good night and thanks for listening!

Dara