Good morning all!

A look out my window has let me know that there is brilliant sunshine waiting to greet me :)

It was weigh in day today so I stumbled out into the bathroom and weighed myself. Now for the moment of truth I LOST 1.5KGS!!!! woo :)

The thing I noticed this week was despite the rain and my sore muscles and everything that made me want to just lie in bed instead of doing anything I have worked out and dragged myself to do a minimum of working off 150 calories in a day.

So thats defiantly progress. Though I am still a bit confused on how people are burning so many calories. Unless I work out for hours I just can't burn those kind of numbers. But I'm shedding weight and meeting my goals so oh well!

Dinner will be easy tonight! I'm having the lasagna which I made last night so it's just a case of reheating :)

Plus GLEE is on!

Now to make this a great day I just need to get my finance approved for my new phone and computer which is taking ages

Shell xo


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Weigh in day #3

Sorry! I'm not ignoring you

Hey guys,

You may have noticed that I have been very quiet this week. Didn't mean to be though, disaster struck and my computer no longer has a screen. So that has complicated things for me; it's very hard to live my life minus my computer - to begin with I study online!!!

Pretty much I had a bad week and nothing much seemed to
Go right so here is to this week improving!

I just got a stationary exercise bike (and today picked up a converter plug because the power cord wasn't to Australian standards) and used it and once I got over being uncomfortable I rode for half an hour and did 13.5kms and burned 150 calories.

I'm looking forward to trying for 18kms tomorrow :)

Okay I'd best get to bed -5am wake up beckons and let's hope this week is looking up!

So fingers crossed tomorrow I get my extension for my assignments that I can't submit as I have no computer, vodaphone approve my application for a phone (2 days till answer my arse), Dell approves finance to replace my computer and work is less of a bitch than it has been.

To much to ask for? Lets hope not xo

Hope you all had an amazing week last week and that this one is better


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:In bed

Weigh In Day #2

5 is a great number. Just not when it is followed by "am".  In order to get everything done I got up at 5am, which because I slept through my alarm at first turned it 5:08am but Mish's advice saved me and I just rolled out of bed and got changed. Thankfully everything I need for work today is already packed so I can happily bum around in bed before leaving for work (and another half hour walk)

Okay today all 2 hours of it I have been awake for has not been a bad day at all :) I have done my fitness test and did 1km in 8:20 meaning I finished my fitness test is 3 beginner (2 very borderline) and 2 advanced. I think I might try the Intermediate program and see how that pans out :)

In other good news it was WEIGH IN DAY! today. Now I havent done all my measurements again ( I have collapsed in bed after work out and shower) but I did hop on my shiny shiny new scales and I am 2kgs lighter *fanfare*

Hope everyone else's weigh in day goes just as well :) And it turns out there are an awful lot of people awake at 5am! Lots of people said goodmorning to me. So I combined my time trial with my half an hour power walk but I will also do another half an hour walking when I walk to work today so :D

Love

Shell

Live feeds are insane

OMG!!!!

Tonight was the first live feed and it was crazy. People were talking so fast it was so hard to keep up. But I did feel inspired, so I did parts of my fitness test just now so the stats so far are;

Push ups (1 min)
Wall sit (mm:ss)
Ab stage	012345
Sit and reach (+/- cm)

So I have 2 advanced and 2 beginner. I am such a random person. I will let the time trial define the normal regime for fitness but I think I may have to mix the program up a bit. I was a dancer for years so my flexability (aided by the fact I stretch alot) has always been very good. I was surprised by how bad my abs are and how good my push ups are. I would have expected them to have been the other way around honestly.

So I am thinking I may have to do the advanced program for my flexability or just keep working on it through Yoga which will work me at my own benchmark for different levels of flexability.

Hope you all had a lovely night. Weigh in plus time test tomorrow. Alarm is set for 5am so see you on the other side

Love
Shell

Thankfully "tomorrow" came today

Good Morning (for the next twenty minutes) All,

I have a weakness. Its a pretty common weakness in that everything I dont like doing gets put off to "tomorrow". You know that "tomorrow" that never comes until a) I have to do something by a deadline and so I am up to all hours of the day/night to get it done or b) I just write it off because I havent done it in so long it doenst seem necessary.

This is the worst habit I have because it leads to alot of unnecessary stress! But the good news is that it stopped today! I dragged myself out of bed at 7am (laugh all you want I dont usually get up until 8am at the earliest) and got myself dressed. Then I waited around for mum and dad to leave (while trying to not look like I was trying to push them out the front door) and then set up and did half an hour of the carmen electra fit to strip dvd. Now this dvd is about an hour but I dont have an hour of free time for the loungeroom so I did half an hour of this and then I walked for half an hour.

Now food wise I dont really eat anything that's on Mish's menu for both health reasons ( I cant have eggs and avacado with no gall bladder it makes me ill) and because I am fussy. So I have just been using My Fitness Pal to keep a track of my calories and keep them under 1200 and I am doing quite well with that.

Now I just have to go home and catch up on all my uni work. But things are definatly looking up.

The plan is to get to bed early and then get up at 5am tomorrow and do my fitness test. I even used google maps this morning to work out how far i need to go to get to 1km.

Hopefully I will see you all tonight at 7pm (unless that co-incides with dinner in which case I wont be seeing you then!)

Love
Shell

xoxo

All I can say is best laid plans

So, today has been a bit of a disaster. I had my plan (which was a pretty good plan) and I woke up at 6am to realise that it had been raining since 3am and therefore I couldnt do my exercise. Hrmm. I was super tired though and feeling unwell so I went back to sleep and decided that I would exercise this afternoon when I got home from work.

So I get home and get changed into my work out gear and then realise that the only room in the house I have to work out in isnt at all big enough to use. Epic fail #2.

So in the end I have caved in and decided today will now be my rest day and Ill trade what I should have been doing today and do it on Sunday when I can get use of the local field or at a pinch my backyard.

ATLEAST I managed to make my calorie goal. baby steps right?

Measure Up and Planning Task

Hey Guys


I know I have been very awol this week. Had the worst weekend diet wise (argh!) but it is the last time - my work had a retreat at a spa this weekend so there was alot of alcohol ( I didnt realise at first that I was drinking alcohol because no one told me and it just tasted like raspberry cordial)


Now I'm paying for it in the measurements because of two reasons. You cant get away from awful food habits and the way Michelle was measuring is different to mine. But in a way it was good. Firstly because it teaches me far more strongly the importance of nutrition and secondly because it I wasnt going to put the changes up and then I was like NO BAD. Put them up again and work on removing them. The guys in the program deserve to know how bad/unable to correctly measure you are!!!


Now I also had to do the planning week this week because I was waiting to hear back about some commitments I had but I will deal with that shortly.


So


MEASUREMENTS

Weight (kg)
Chest (cm)
Waist (cm)
Widest (cm)
Distance from knee (cm)
Right thigh (cm)
Left thigh (cm)

Okay so they are my measurement straight from the site. Aided by the fact I got new digital scales I am now 3 kgs heavier than my old ones thought I was *sad* but oh well.

Now I also had to plan my weeks today (Bad me) but I guess the bright side is I didnt just not do it because "oh its too late". My plan is to admit to the errors I make in this program but also not be too hard on myself about them or I will just give up.


Monday - Fitness

6am -  Do Michelle's outdoor program that in the "My Program"

Tuesday - Toning

8am - Walk to work (half an hour)

After Work - Carmen Electras Fit to Strip DVD or a toning workout from one of my WII games

Wednesday - Fitness

6am - Surpise challange when ever possible

8am - walk to work (half an hour)

After Work -  Cardo work out from WII Games

Thursday - Toning

6am - Outdoor program of Michelle's

8am - Walk to work

Friday - Core/ Stretch

After Work - Yoga through my ipod instructional program

Saturday - Fitness

Morning - 45 minute walk/ swimming (once it gets warmer)

1pm - circus trampolining class at the PCYC/Gym

Sunday (A LOVELY DAY OFF)

 Now depending on the week the day may need  to be reshuffled a little but that is the basic plan.

With that all finished I am now going to have another nap and continue recovering from my weekend. Happy 12WBT kick off guys :D

Pre Season Progress - Weigh in day!

Hey Guys

So its WEDNESDAY WEIGH IN DAY!!! How (un)exciting. I was actually kind of dreading this because I havent been good with my diet as much since Saturday for various reasons so I was like...hrmm Wonder how this will go.

But here are the measurements below. The one in brackets is last week and the one in front is this weeks measurements. I was so shocked by the results I have checked them 3 times including just now while I am at work!

Weight: 91 kgs (92kgs) - so 1kg lost
BMI: 33.8 (33.8) same
Neck: 36cm (36cm) same
Waist: 96.5 cm (106cm) massive 9.5 cm removed
Hips: 126 cm (134cm) 8cm removed
Under Bust: 96 cm(98cm) 2cm removed
Upper Bust: 107 cm with bra on(120 cm with bra on) 13 cms removed!!!
Bicep: 34cm (34.5 cm) 0.5cm removed
Thigh: 56cm (65.5 cm) 9.5cm removed
Bum: 127cm (127cm) same (damn it)

So it seems that overall my fitness is improving! Can't wait to see what its like under Michelle. Bring on 12wbt!

Shell xo

Weekends aren't always my friend

Okay this will be a quick post cos I'm in bed ready for sleep. This weekend kind of stuffed a rather good week. Very little exercise got done other than walking around shopping and while my diet wasn't terrible I did find myself snacking a fair bit. It's mostly a boredom thing while I
Study but next weekend is spa weekend with friends!

I did manage to go and get my contacts prescription so
I am finally all geared up for circus lessons!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Bed!

Review: Eclipse

So the Twilight Saga is defiantly a very strange phenomena. But before I go on I'll just sum up the storyline thus far for those few remaining humans out there who have not read  the Twilight books. Basically the story is set in Forks, Washington where a girl by the name of Bella moves to town. In a small town she is naturally the focus of alot of attention; some more welcome than others. It turns out Bella has really tasty smelling blood. This of course would not usually be a problem unless your a vampire.

Enter Edward Cullen. A hot vampire whom is tortured as Bella's blood smells great but he's a vegetarian vampire. Throw in a few human eating vampires, a love triangle with a shape shifter and alot of random drama and you have Twilight.

Look to be honest I like the books alot. Yes I think the writing needs work, it worries me that the book encourages teens to conflate love with obsession and well Bella herself terrifies me. Also to paraphrase John Green there is a slight pedophile sense to the fact the 107 year old vampire is dating a 16 year old. But they are fan, fast and they engross you in a way that is entertaining.

So last night I finally watched Eclipse. I had avoided it because I was so badly disappointed by the first two which managed to only barely be watchable on the small screen. When I saw them at the movies I wanted to leave the cinema. Now Eclipse is a little silly and the acting abilities of the cast leave alot to be desired. I also felt that the tension in the books is lacking in the movies.

However all in all its a good fun movie for when you don't want anything too serious. There is angst, love triangles and a healthy dose action to make the movie fun.  Also Taylor Lautiner spends a great deal of time with no shirt on, which will be appreciated by the female viewers.

The cinematography was quite good and I felt the pace of this movie was far better than the past two.

However the dialogue is still quote awkward and the chemistry between the actors is lacking. I also felt the fight scene was a little less epic than I had been expecting.

Though a lot of my displeasure with these movies stems from them leaving out my favourite parts of the books - a problem of having read the books and liked them prior to having seen the movies. I avoid these problems when watching Harry Potter because I haven't read the books. All in all while the movie lasts you wont care about anything other than the drama unfolding on the screen. However, in the aftermath the message given by the movies may trouble you (such as no woman can be complete without a strong male to take care of her...and that a man sneaking in your window uninvited to watch you sleep is somehow a good thing?)

All in all I give this a 7/10. I have certainly seen much worse films.

Im not counting chickens but still

Or in this case the cause of fitness.

So today i was dragging my heels because I was tired, my body hurt and work was hard this week and I just couldnt find any motivation. SO when I got up this morning I had pretty much decieded stuff walking to work I'm going to catch a taxi (despite the fact the Taxi is $16 and the bus $1.90 ...(i only walk 1/2 an hour and catch the bus along the main highway because I dont want to die)

So I stumbled out of bed and hopped on the scales and to my delight between yesterday morning and this morning I HAD LOST A KG!!! Now I am not expecting such weight loss to continue, 7kgs a week is asking a fair bit but it motivated me so off I went this morning and walked. I want to be healthy and the only way that will happen is get up off my arse and walk each day. I also dug out my Zumba and Carmen Electra dvds, so they can get a work out as well.

I met my 1200 calorie goal again today :) that makes it 4 days in a row.

So this challange was to clean out the cupboards. Luckily for me my dad recently was diagnosed with diabetes type 2 so we never have much junk food in the house and seeming today was shopping day we were certinatly lacking junk! What I did manage to do was not buy anymore ice creams, no softdrink, no chocolate.

Everything we bought was good for us, including an organic butter which has less than 1g salt and sugar!!

The best thing about living in the country is fresh produce so we stopped by the variour road side stalls and got banannas, carrots and strawberries for me to use as snacks! The other main culprit of mine is I like to drink fruit juice so instead we invested in a juicer so now I can make fresh fruit juice with no added sugar so I get the best of both worlds!

To celebrate I bought myself this incredible pillow

Its a one of a kind but you can source these pillows at http://www.pruetrollope.com.au/

I am so excited for tomorrow! Bring on more good choices and healthy living

xo

Shell

Measurement Day!

Hey Guys

Snoopy is summing it up! I got slammed at work today so I am pretty exhausted. However, good things happened today

* I only ate 1,134 calories despite having a small slice of the farewell cake at work today
* I burned 234 calories today walking to work and Wii boxing for ten minutes
* I got Wii Band Hero
*My textbook for Religion finally arrived so I can catch up
*Tomorrow is another day

But it is measurement day *play evil enterance music here*

Okay so I wasnt really sure what I needed to measure so I measured pretty much everything. So these are the start measurements to which all other measurements shall follow;

Weight: 92kgs (though I need to invest in digital scales and find a part of the house for even measuring)
BMI: 33.8 (eeep)
Neck: 36cm
Waist: 106cm
Hips: 134cm
Under Bust: 98cm
Upper Bust: 120 cm (with bra on)
Bicep: 34.5 cm
Thigh: 65.5 cm
Bum: 127cm


But I am using My Fitness Pal to track calories (www.myfitnesspal.com) (also has a ipod download which is how i found it) and one of the good things is my body burns 1,637 calories just laying in bed. So if I limit myself to 1,200 and do exercise I will loose weight.

Now that they are on here I am looking forward to seeing the changes!

Happy weight loss everyone - I have a fair bit of uni work to do so I need to dash off

xo Shell

My word is my bond

Hey Guys,


Its the day before the dreaded weigh in and measurement kick off. Last week saw my focus largely being on the kick off of the new study period at uni so I didnt get an awful lot achieved. Yesterday I had a very sore ankle where I had rolled it so I didnt do much but I did watch my calories so yesterday my calorie intake was 787 which was pretty good.


Today I woke up feeling pretty good so I have walked half an hour (I took the bus to work instead of driving so to get to work I had to walk half an hour) and then I did half an hour of wii boxing because my ankle is a bit tender still. I also only consumed 984 calories and I burned 399.


So this week so far is going quite well.

So this is my committment to doing what it takes.  I will loose 15kgs by the end of the program and in the next 12 months I will loose 30kgs. Things may not always go my way (sore ankles for one) but I will do what I need to to get to that goal. I will be more flexable in all areas of my life and body.

The benefits of these things arent what I am committed to cos thats what I'm bribing myself with.

 Though I will be able to run 5kms (which is the distance to my work) by the end of the twelve weeks. I will do all these things not because I want to be attractive to someone else but because I want to do the right thing for myself, my body and my mind.

I am worth putting time and effort into to get right.

So this is my committment to you, to me and to the world in general.

Love Shell

Week 4 Pre Season Task and other ramblings

Good Evening Y'all

Okay enough chanelling a Southern Bell. Today has not been a good day. I had a to do list. I got up early. Everything started off very well in theory. Then it got severly side tracked by my printer breaking and having to go and get a new one. But more about that in a minute.

During my mad rush to go and get a new printer (and ink) because it was Sunday and I didnt want to be behind week one of study period because thats's just lame I though on this is the perfect opportunity (because I will be out anyway) to GEAR UP!  as per Michelle's directions.

I have weights already so I didnt upgrade them. They are only 1kg but I have a shoulder injury so I need to be careful with weights. My doctor told me to start with these and then work my way up - better to be safe than sorry and I dont fancy a shoulder reconstruction at 24!

So I have recently invested in a WII which I have wanted forever so it seemed like a good deal. So now I have EA sports (boxing should work my arms very nicely) and two fitness games including the Michelle Bridges endorsed My Shape. I have a feeling sue to work committments until daylight savings starts I will be working out indoors. I dont fancy (seeming I live on a highway) trying to run/walk outdoors in the dark. I have decided to catch the bus to work in the mornings which should mean about 30 minutes of walking done in the mornings. That will be a nice "outdoors" bonus.

I have Zumba dvds and Carmen Electra which I find fun. As we work our way through the program I may buy more but at this point I shall just see what happens. I also have a fitness ball and a folder full of exercises collated from various sources.

I work too far away from the gym to take kick boxing lessons and I hate treadmills and bikes so I wont be joining a gym. I will however be joining curcus lessons. Insane I know but it looks so fun. So I made an appointment to get my contact lenses and I will be joining soon afterwards for Saturday afternoon lessons. I want to be able to do this

and this

So once I assessed all this I realised I didnt really need to buy anything at all. I have an ipod and I dont think a heart monitor was more important than a new printer so it lost out (plus the exercise I like to do doesnt really require one). So I went out and got two new lorna jane exercise tops along with my new printer.

See normally after such a major set back I would have given up on my uni stuff for the day. It would have been too much hassle, I didnt feel like doing it and I could have been playing games on my wii and chatting to friends. But that was the me before this program. So other than having a nap (hey I was tired) and playing an hour or wii I spent all afternoon/night getting up to date and I DID IT! major improvement for me which will hopefully cross over into my eating/excerising life.

Wednesday (official weigh in day) I am going to post up my weight, measurements etc. I wasnt going to do it at first because I was thinking it would be too embarrassing. But I have decieded that its the only real way of making progress. Everyone else is bearing their souls so I may as well.