Row a Marathon! Are you crazy?

The word Marathon had only ever been used in my vocabulary with the word ‘Movie’ in front of it, involving the delight of plonking on the lounge for hours on end.

But, a year ago I used the word Marathon with a Half in front of it, and accomplished 21,097m on the Concept 2 Indoor rower, whilst on an adrenalin fuelled whim I said “hey maybe next I’ll try a Marathon” (crazy).

I never thought it would come to fruition as I was always postponing the date due to surgery and, to be honest, lack of time and commitment. I needed to set a date and stick to it. I also had added pressure by saying I would row for charity*, a little local girl Sophia who needed surgery in USA to correct her rare limb deficiency, donations still welcome and read more of her story here. Being a woman of my word I had to get it happening.

I procrastinated a bit more, trained for short distance events like the 1 Minute Challenge and Australian Indoor Rowing Championships and it was while I was at this event in Brisbane that I saw an opportunity. The host gym Urban Rowing was holding a Christmas Marathon Day on 13th December 2015, so I decided I would hold my own event in NSW on the same day.

It was only a month away so it was time to get in some longer distance training on the rower in preparation. So depending what time I could fit into my busy life I would do anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, 3 times a week. When I did the 2 hours I rowed 24,000m it was hard but doable and this was to be my longest training row.

Now when I say I only had a month to train, I had been doing A LOT of training before this so I just increased it to more of the longer distance rows. (The experts recommend a minimum 4 month training program, so don’t go from zero to hero in a month.)

Finding a venue was easy, the amazing owners of my gym EnVie Fitness were happy to let me host the event at their studio, as I didn’t know anyone else who would row the full Marathon with me, I attempted to fill 2 other rowers as a continuous marathon relay. So taking advantage of the gym Christmas party and a few slightly intoxicated members I recruited enough people to commit to rowing 2k or 5k or even 10k and more.

As I confirmed the relay rowers more and more started pulling out and made the lead up to the event which made me very anxious, whilst some had good reasons for cancelling it still didn’t help. But calling upon friends is the best thing a girl can do and they came, stayed, filled in gaps, rowed twice or even 3 times and made my row a lot less stressful.

Now MY Marathon row, let me tell you all about it. It started more worried about music and technology rather than the distance, my vintage Ipod failed to charge and my carefully selected Row Ho Ho playlist was never to be heard.

The starting line-up, Amanda, myself and Jules

The starting line-up, Amanda, myself and Jules

I started as schedule at the stroke of 7am, trying to chat to my fellow rowers rather than focusing on the time and numbers, it was great to chat to friends and meet new people who I hadn’t got to know from the gym previously.

Alita the owner of EnVie on the left and Coby on the right doing their bit.

Alita one of the owners of EnVie Woonona on the left and Coby on the right doing their bit for the relays.

The first 18,000m was, dare I say, relatively cruisey, and from then on hitting each milestone was an achievement in metres and in time, 21,097 half way, over 2 hours then became my longest ever row, when you see the numbers tick down from 20,000 to 19,999 and especially when it went to 9,999 that was epic. But the realisation that 10k meant nearly an hour to go at my current pace was hard to grasp.

Pleased to see some festive spirit from Kate on the right and our token male Scotty "Unreal" who says he really needs to work more on his cardio.

Pleased to see some festive spirit from Kate on the right and our token male Scotty “Unreal” who says he really needs to work more on his cardio.

With about 8k to go, shit started to get real, my body hated me, my mind wanted it finished, I couldn’t pull harder if I tried and the more I looked at the estimated finish time the more it was creeping up to 3 hours 40 minutes. There was my amazing pit crew at the end Kim and Kate who were adjusting my foot hold up and down to change positions slightly, I was lifting alternate buttocks off the seat on every other stroke for some rear end relief, I was taking many sips of drinks and all too often I would just stop for a second here and there but never putting the handle down, it was getting really really tough mentally and physically.

I rowed for a while hunched over so I wouldn’t look at the screen just to get a few more metres done. To my surprise this seemed to work. Then the counting down of every kilometre, when it ticked over 3 hours I was feeling some relief that the home stretch was in sight. I just kept rowing. My mantra was “still less painful than 3 days on a horse”, I’m still yet to blog about that experience and in saying that this was a different kind of pain, more intense but I kept repeating it to myself and occasionally out loud (weirdo).

It was around this time that my darling husband brought the kids in to the gym, this put a little pep in my stroke, but it was short lived.

The pain is real, but the end is nigh. My cheer squad kept me going.

I had now stopped talking to my rowing buddies, a new lady got on to finish 1 of the relays and I hadn’t met her before, I said “I’m really sorry but I’m not feeling very chatty right now” (how rude).

There was a small crowd of dedicated supporters to whom I’m very thankful, some not exactly yelling what I wanted to hear like “go harder” but knowing they were there to support me was more important.

Such a welcomed distraction when Ella climbed on next to me.

Such a welcomed distraction when Ella climbed on next to me.

With less than 1000m to go my daughter Ella climbed on the rower next to me to finish off 1 of the relay rows, completing about the last 300m, this inspired me to give it all I had, but when I went to push harder with my legs I felt on the verge of a cramp in my quads so I calmed down a bit but still faster than I was going, at this stage I was aiming for sub 3 hours 42 minute but I was just happy to be so close to the finish.

The pain and relief of THE END

The pain and relief of THE END

And then, THE END.

I had made it, my amazing pit crew removed my feet from the straps and I waddled like a little old lady to a mat on the floor and lay down collapsed. EVERYTHING hurt.

Get me off this thing. Thanks Allison and Kim for helping me escape.

Get me off this thing. Thanks Allison and Kim for helping me escape.

I just lay there for a few minutes feeling sore and sick to the point of almost vomiting.

Once I peeled myself off the floor the enormity of what I had done still hadn’t really sunk in, it was all pure relief of being off that damn rower.

I'm dying here, but still have my festive spirit. Row Ho Ho.

I’m dying here, but still have my festive spirit. Row Ho Ho.

Here’s my acceptance speech for my virtual award:

I would like to say a massive thanks to Alex and Alita from EnVie Fitness Woonona for allowing me to take over their studio (again). To all the amazing people who came along and rowed you will never understand how much your support means to me. To Kate and Kim for hanging around and helping me as well as filling in rowing gaps in the relays where it was needed and especially for your support at the painful end. To my deer husband (yes it’s spelt right for us) for you never ending

And the winner is ….. everyone who finishes a Marathon. I’ll take this certificate and display it with pride.

support of my crazy ambitions and coming to cheer me on “row fatty row” (it is an approved cheer) and for my adorable children yelling “row mummy row” before wandering off to play with your friends, I can only imagine how boring it was to watch for 10 seconds but my little angel Ella who rowed with me at the end almost made me cry and she still brags about how she beat me.

 

So for those who care for the numbers, here are my stats:

Distance 42,195m
Time 3 hours 41 minutes and 56.6 seconds
Calories burned 2149
Average HR 154
Max HR 171

In conclusion, would I do it again, well on the day, and the week that followed I would have said no way, no chance, no how …… but some time has passed since that fateful day and I am contemplating that it could be an annual event, never say never.

Thanks for reading
Row Ho Ho

* From this event alone we raised over $1000 for Save Sophia’s Leg Charity Appeal but still so much more is needed.

1 last picture to share, the next generation of rowers.

1 last picture to share, the next generation of rowers.

My dirty little secret

Aaahhhh school holidays, a time that some mums love and some dread. I sit on the fence when it comes to school holidays. I enjoy doing the fun stuff with the kids, movies, play dates, lunching and just hanging at home and love the lack of schedule, no yelling and screaming to put shoes on grab bags, jumpers, hats (I’m sure you get the picture). But even with all the fun some days you just need an hour to yourself to have a shower, do a workout, plan or prepare dinner, I’m sure there are some mums nodding along with me (please tell me you are). And I am blessed that I can take the kids to work with me when I need to (the perks of working for family).

This holidays I have taken things to a whole new level of “falling off the wagon”.

The last day of school was a Friday which also coincided with my husband going on an overseas trip and a 7am drop off at the airport, this was all fine, followed by kids dropped at school/daycare on time and me heading off to work. On the way to work I realised I needed fuel in my car so I stopped to fill ‘er up. Well the sales and marketing people at Coles saw me coming, 2 family blocks of chocolate for $7 what a bargain and $2 large bags of chips, “I’ll have 2 bags of those thanks” after all it was Friday and people might pop in over the weekend (this is what I do to justify it to myself). And there began the downhill spiral that was the next 10 days.

On the way home from work I did a quick run to the bottle shop for some supplies for the week and promptly bragged jokingly about it on Instagram.

With a post that went something like this "Should be almost enough to get me through the 1st week of the #schoolholidays

With a post that went something like this “Should be almost enough to get me through the 1st week of the #schoolholidays

Whilst I won’t bore you with the details of every morsel that I ate and drank, I’ll give you a list of what I can remember about my total debacle of a week* (*10 days).

3 family blocks of Cadbury chocolate
Somewhere in the vicinity of 4 large bags of chips
Half a litre of Ice Cream
2x Schnitzel Cotoletta (this is a chicken schnitzel topped with Bolognese meat and melted cheese, I didn’t even know it existed, epic find)
1 loaf of Sourdough in about 3 days often doused in butter and peanut butter (up to 3-4 pieces at a time)
Copious amounts of other bread products
KFC twister and Crusher
Movie popcorn (I shared it, because that makes it all better)
Double choc-top (because a single just wasn’t enough and it was barely past breakfast)
Several Frozen cokes
A bottle of champagne every night and 2 a night over this last weekend (I’m not an alcoholic, they go to meetings)
Late night cheese and crackers

And there was much more; many Chai lattes, a few Iced Chocolates, cakes, biscuits (that didn’t even taste that good), burgers with the whole bun on (gasp).

I was mindfully eating poorly at almost every meal. Sort of defeated the purpose of the last few weeks in cutting out sugar from my cups of Tea.

I’m not blaming any 1 thing for this out of control week* I was still a functioning adult, the kids were still well looked after mainly because of my dirty little secret.

The really bad shit comes out after dark.

I try not to eat the bad food in front of the kids, you know to set a good example and all that. When they ask for desert I like to respond with fruit and proceed to list everything that we have, they can also have yoghurt if we have any and on a very rare occasion a tube ice-block. So my house is not a barrage of junk because as you can see I often have no self control. The chocolate wouldn’t even get mentioned until they were fast asleep and really there was no-one to mention it to.

My addiction love of reality TV still continues and the latest season of The Biggest Loser Australia has just started. Whilst I was not in any way as BAD as the show made the contestants out to be, they were inhaling entire pizza’s while sitting alone in a car or consuming litres upon litres of ice-cream for breakfast, having a whole tray of lasagne for lunch that should feed a family, I was my own kind of BAD.

I would have to say this is my longest stint of BAD that I have had in over 5 years. Normally I can manage a good day or 2 in a BAD week, but for some reason I couldn’t get off this downhill spiral. I got to Thursday morning and thought it was almost the weekend, so why start now? Normally I can talk myself out of that mindset but not that day.

I even tampered with my own Typo light box motivational message.

I even tampered with my own Typo light box motivational message.

But amongst all of these BAD food choices I was still exercising and setting goals, in fact setting some big ass goals. 1 of which was commencing training for a Marathon on the Concept 2 Indoor Rowing machine and the other signing up to compete in the primo 2k Rowing event a the upcoming Australian Indoor Rowing Championships (I’ve been retired from that event for the last 6 years). So in line with my new training regime I sat on the rower for an hour, my body was screaming at me, “what are you doing to yourself” but even that didn’t stop me eating crap shortly after.

So what have I gained from eating like a piggy? Well about 3 kilos, a continual bloated feeling and generally feeling quite down in the dumps.

What have I lost? The ability to fit in some of my clothes, my motivation and self esteem.

What am I going to do about it? Dust off the chip crumbs and get myself together. With another week of the school holidays to go and a long weekend thrown in there and a holiday coming up this can’t go on. Stop blaming little speed humps in my life, FOCUS on the positive, because there is a lot to be happy and positive about and maybe re-word my Typo light board. Any suggestion?

School Holiday fun

School Holiday fun with my cherubs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m NOT with the Band

Twenty something years ago I was an amateur Band Manager and my Saturday night quote was “I’m with the Band”. My weekends were spent having a couple lot of drinks and watching live bands in some seedy awesome establishments.

Not actual band I managed, but they were almost as good. Image Courtesy of http://www.rockbandaide.com

Not actual band I managed, but they were almost as good.
Image Courtesy of http://www.rockbandaide.com

Fast forward 20 years and the only bands, I’m talking about are hair bands for my mummy bun and my daughters pigtails.

The other band I am not afraid to talk about is my Lapband or Gastric Band.  I got my lapband in June 2010, (read about that here) because I didn’t want to be morbidly obese and pass on my poor food habits to my children. In the 10 years leading up to having my daughter I had put on 50kgs (read about that here). From having my Lapband in until now I have maintained a 22-25kg weight loss. I have no regrets.

But for the past few years my Lapband has been causing me grief with reflux that medication couldn’t always control. This in turn inflamed lower oesophagus and stomach ulcers (that I didn’t know I had), caused internal bleeding (which I didn’t know about) and these unknown complications potentially caused me to pass out while shopping one day with both my kids (5 and 1 year olds), really scary stuff.  I was thankful to be in Athlete’s Foot Wollongong at the time buying school shoes for my daughter and I joked about the price of her shoes causing the fainting episode. The store owner, staff and random members of the public were amazingly helpful and the kids and I got a free ride in an ambulance.

Initially after some tests they thought my fainting was caused by dehydration and low blood pressure, which dropped substantially when going from lying to standing position. A follow up appointment with my doctor 2 days later and it was discovered that it was a combination of all of the above complications. So although the Lapband wasn’t the cause of this it was a bi-product.

So after the last few years of procrastinating about getting my Lapband fixed or removed it all came to a head and I made the decision to have it removed. I went in for surgery just before Easter for what was potentially a 1 or 2 night stay that turned into 3 nights. The surgeon did warn me that getting it out can be a longer recovery than putting it in and he was not wrong. I had really low blood pressure, blurred vision and vomiting and I felt just plain awful.

So 4 weeks post-surgery I am on the mend, I’m back to the gym on light weights and cardio, getting my head around eating well with no restrictions. I will see my surgeon again in 3 months and I have set a weight loss goal of 9kgs. I am focusing on low carb (not cutting carbs completely) and high protein style eating plan as per his recommendations and every other reputable trainer, coach, dietician etc I have ever met.

I am terrified of weight gain. I have just got to the point in my recovery where I am feeling hungry, I have passed through the liquid diet phase of my recovery and had my chocolate binge, milk and milo fix and ice-cream binges (because they are a liquid) and I have thankfully stopped that shenanigans.

IMG_20150414_215605

My latest mantra is “Don’t waste the fortuity”, (because opportunity wouldn’t fit on my Typo Lightbox) I have to remember that the last almost 5 years with the Lapband have not been easy and I have slogged out countless hours of exercise, mummy guilt abandoning the family to go to the gym, emotional rollercoasters, stress, relationship struggles and wondering if I had done the right thing, to let it all slip away by eating and drinking stupidly.

Weight-loss is made in the kitchen so I am focusing on this primarily and exercise secondly because, honestly, the exercise for me is the easy part.

So the future is uncertain but I am going to give it my all now that I am no longer “with the Band”.

Half Row Ho Ho – completed

To inspire me to get back onto the Indoor rower I needed a goal, something to train for, because as much as I enjoy exercise (most of the time), having a personal challenge motivates me to get out the door and get moving. My second motivation came from raising funds for The Salvation Army Australia for their Christmas Appeal, donate here but don’t delay my appeal page finishes on 17 Jan 2015.

My personal goal to complete attempt a Half Marathon happened on Saturday 20 December 2014. I was pleased to have 3 great people alongside me with my long time rowing Coach Ian Gibson of Pioneer Fitness, Kathy who I met a few years ago through Ian and Kim a long-time friend who nagged me to join HER gym EnVie a few years ago, something I have never regretted.

OUR awesome gym EnVie at Woonona was the host for the event, even allowing a MALE into their all-female environment (Ian tells me he even put the seat down).

 

All happy rowers before and in the very early stages of the Half Row Ho Ho

All happy rowers before and in the very early stages of the Half Row Ho Ho

WARNING – this next part will contain numbers and figures which may only be understood by fellow Indoor Rowers or Concept 2 users.

We kicked off almost at the stroke of 7am (get it stroke, rowing/clock, double meaning and all that).

Ok time to get serious, my goal was to finish in 1 hour 45 minutes which would have been an average pace of 2:29.3 per 500m and strokes per minute around 20-21.

The nervous excitement and adrenalin of the challenge saw me start too hard and I had to talk myself back to a more maintainable pace and slow my stroke pace down, eventually settling at about 2:26 I felt comfortable but was afraid that I was going too hard.

Once I got through the first third of the row I picked up the pace and was maintaining about a 2:24 pace. All was going well until about the 17000m mark and with 4k to go my arms turned to heavy logs and I feared they wouldn’t get me home. By this stage of the event we had a small cheer squad of Gym trainers and fellow rowers who offered some much needed advice, some of which was “use more legs” so focusing back on my technique and getting the very tired legs to do more of the work, I struggled through the next 3k.

With 1000m to go the adrenalin kicked in and excitement that I was soon to get off the damn rower, so I picked up the pace and averaged a 2:19 pace, even pulling under 2:00 for a strong finish.

Here are my splits for all you Rowers out there.

Here are my splits for all you Rowers out there.

End of uber technical details, resume normal programming.

My stats for half marathon on the rower, which for those who don’t know the distance is 21097m, time was 1:41:46.4 with an average pace of 2:24.7 per 500m average stroke rate was 21 spm.

The home stretch during the last 1000m when the going got tough but the adrenaline kept me going.

The home stretch during the last 1000m when the going got tough but the adrenaline kept me going.

It felt mighty good to finish and this could be the post row adrenalin talking but I committed to have a crack at a full MARATHON on the rower 42k at 42 years old. Watch this space, coming to you from a gym sometime in April 2015.

Ahhh pure relief, I finished the event and still have my Santa Hat on a very happy Half Row Ho Ho.

Ahhh pure relief, I finished the event and still have my Santa Hat on a very happy Half Row Ho Ho.

MY – Half Row Ho Ho

Some of my readers will know I have been a fan of the Indoor Rower for the past 7 years.

I recently set myself a personal goal to complete a Half Marathon on the Concept 2 Rower.

I recruited 1 friend just by mentioning it and a few others along the way including my coach Ian Gibson from Pioneer Fitness who is an approved Indoor Rowing Instructor. My goal was to complete it before the new year but I amended that to now be before Christmas (I didn’t want Christmas food belly).

So the dates are set my friend Lisa is completing her HM this Saturday 13 December and I will be completing mine on Saturday 20th December along with my 3 other buddies. The events will be held at my awesome gym EnVie Woonona starting around 7am on each of the days.

Inspired by Australian comedian Hamish Blake’s goal of completing a Marathon on the Rower and raising funds for The Salvation Army, I wanted to make my metres count so I have started a fundraising page on Shout for Good. FYI Hamish completed his Marathon last Sunday 7th December at a cracking pace and for those who know their Rowing numbers it was 42,195m in 2 hours 58 min 26.1 seconds a cracking average pace of 2.06.8 per 500m and an average strokes per minute of 27.

My training over the last few months has been wide and varied including a few distances I have never tackled before a 12k and a 15k straight row and surprisingly did a better average pace on the longer distance. Leave a comment if you want to hear more about my training rows I’m happy to share.

So support me in making Christmas a little brighter for those less fortunate and donate here to support the Salvos and the wonderful work they do. Every little bit counts and adds up, so don’t think you can’t make a difference.

Follow along on Facebook and Instagram with our hashtag #halfrowhoho

rower

The pain starts here.

 

Stop the Procrastinating – 10 Goals to a better me

Goal setting has aided me in the past and whilst I have had these in the back of my mind for a while I was inspired by reading a blog Imperfect Life to put fingers to keyboard and get this documented. Andrea has also had WLS (weight loss surgery) so I connected with a lot of what she had to say and completely agree the Surgery is a tool which sparked a complete overhaul.

The problem I have found with WLS is that whilst it treated the immediate problem of weight, it doesn’t always fix the underlying problem of food addiction, so for many like me it is a constant battle.

Andrea runs a Fitness Challenge whereby she encourages you to participate in 10 races or your own fitness goals which will physically challenge you to be faster, stronger and better than you were before. I am not participating in her challenge but it really struck a chord with me because whilst I used to compare myself to others and I am still curious about what other people do, lift and run, I am much more focused now on beating myself.

So here are my 10 Races/Goals: 

  1. Go skydiving. Hubby bought me a voucher for my 40th Birthday so now over a year and a half later I am busting to do it. I have to weigh a maximum of 105kgs so I am aiming to weigh 103kg before booking my date.
  2. To crack the double digits weight goal. 99kgs by the end of September 2014.
  3. Pinkies Triathlon – October 2014 Long course (which in the world of Triathlon is like an Enticer).
  4. Leg Press “The Stack” at my Gym EnVie Woonona which is 103kgs x 5 reps. (Currently 82kgs 3 sets of 10 reps 15 July 2014)

    The leg-press stack, currently at 79kg plus the 3kg drop = 82kg, watch this space.

    The leg-press stack, currently at 79kg plus the 3kg drop = 82kg, watch this space.

  5. Play a Paintball Tournament – The Masters November 2014
  6. Mud Run or similar before Christmas 2014.
  7. Run 7km non-stop. (Just cracked 5k on 12 July 2014 and beat my time today 26 July 2014).
  8. Aquathon – Australia Day 2015
  9. Husky Enticer Triathlon – Feb 2015
  10. Sydney City to Surf 2015 – 14k (more of a longer term goal but it’s on my bucket list, run, walk or crawl, who’s keen?).

So there are my goals, I will keep you updated on my progress. Who has some goals they would like to share, I love to hear what everyone else is striving to achieve.

Challenge Accepted

Rewind my life 6 weeks ago and things were very different. I was wrapping my head, once again, around weight loss and ongoing lifestyle changes. My motto was “Everyday Better Choices”.  I somehow got myself into the right headspace, which in my personal opinion is the ONLY thing you need to lose weight. I don’t know where it came from and how it took over the “Evil Food Queen”, but it has so let’s run with it.

My awesome gym EnVie Woonona was running a 36 Day Challenge and a weight loss seminar, in my endeavour to keep my momentum going I opted to participate in the challenge and attended the seminar. Knowledge is power and I came away from the seminar with a new vigour, re-enforcing things I already knew and learning some new key points.

Die fat

These are the things I really truly embraced:

Planning – “Proper Planning Prevents (Piss) Poor Performance” – the extra P word usually gets a run in our house, you may choose to leave that one out.
Meal and snack planning has been a major contributor to my success, it is not for the lazy or unmotivated. I personally found this more challenging than getting my butt to the gym. I have been working out for 7 years WITHOUT consistent weight loss, so exercise is never my problem. Even portions were not a huge problem, but the kitchen scales came out, and almost every morsel that went into my mouth (when possible) was weighed.
My biggest problem has always been snacking, finding healthy snacks to eat when you are on the run. Grocery shopping is hell and cooking is only fun when I want to do it and it’s usually cake. When I stop for fuel regardless of the time of day, filling the car up usually earned me a reward and the evening munchies I could rustle up some horrendous high calorie food with almost nothing in the cupboard (it’s a skill). These were the things I had to change. So my replacement snacks were hummus and carrot sticks, 1 row of rice crackers and a slice of cheese, protein ball/s*, peanut butter  and banana muffins*, vita wheats with light cream cheese and a small tin of salmon, dried fruit and nuts, small bag of lite microwave popcorn (I didn’t even know the small bags existed), apple or strawberries. I know some of these choices are better than others, but compared to what I could have had, it is a complete turnaround.
* These recipes came from the EnVie 36 Day Challenge Booklet

Eliminate – My mission was to get rid of as many things in the house as I could that I would normally “go-to” when I felt the urge to make bad choices. Some people can have a square of chocolate, I am NOT 1 of those people, I am a minimum of a row at a time and could easily consume ½ or whole family block in 1 sitting no problemo. I would sometimes buy a bag of Corn Chips for a nacho dinner, very rarely would they make it to that meal. I also love and Icy cold can of coke and a coke slushy, but they are wasted calories, I will confess I had 2 coke slushy’s in 6 weeks. Alcohol was creeping up to a couple of glasses to a bottle of champagne a few nights a week and often more on the weekend. This has been stopped, now only on special occasions and I have opted to drive to some events so as to only have 1 glass or none at all. This is a big change for me.

Set Goals – Small weekly goals, mini weight goals all leading to the bigger picture. Whilst I haven’t posted my latest goals they are in my head and I will post them this week to be held accountable and measure my success. “Failure is not an option”.

Everyday Better Choices – I enjoy a skim chai latte a couple of times a week and somehow crept up to a Jumbo size, these got a major cutback to a small once or twice a week. Every time I wanted something I shouldn’t have I would think, is this better than I would normally have, ie snacks at the movies, toppings on pizza, homemade pizza vs store bought. I will admit I am enjoying making my own food as I am often disappointed with take-away and café options, it just takes planning (see above).

Mindset – as I mentioned my head is in the game (it is all the game of life), not letting things get to me that would normally derail my mindset and I will confess there have been a few things in this 6 weeks that could have easily done that, I had to deal with my problems and not eat/drink them away. End result is everyone is happier (I think).

Support – I had to ask people for support, don’t be afraid to ask. Hubby had his part to play, if he felt a craving or a desire to have something, I asked that he not share it with me. The words “chocolate” and “McFlurry” were banned from evening conversations. My problem is I am not lazy, I will jump in the car and do a junk-food run at the first mention of “I feel like…….”
Friends on weekends away and dining out have all supported my better choices. Some friends today actually apologised for having easter eggs, cupcakes and biscuits, they shouldn’t have apologise, nor their kids go without because of my food choices. I proudly said “no thanks” because I truly didn’t want any, my fear of not being able to stop at just 1 is always in the back of my mind.
The girls at the gym are a massive support network, all the staff knew I was participating in the challenge and took the time to have a chat about whatever concerns I had about nutrition or exercise. Some of them were even participating in the Challenge themselves so they could discuss recipes and meal planning, it was fantastic.

Today was my final weigh and measure for the challenge and a little bit of “Old Me” came back with thoughts of launching from this fast moving wagon to go on a binge after weigh-in (because I can recover before I have to weigh-in again, please tell me other people think like this). Instead I packed my breakfast and lunch plus snacks for the kids and took it with me to our playdate. A binge is still lingering but with more support from the girls at the gym it is taking a back seat to just carrying on with what I have learnt from the Challenge.

So here are the results:
Start                      Finish                    Loss
Weight                 112.3                     108.3                     4kg
Arm                       40                           39                        1cm
Bust                      121                        118.5                     2.5cm
Waist                    127.5                     124                        3.5cm
Hip                        137                        132.5                    4.5cm
Thigh                     64                          62                         2cm

So 4kg down and 13.5 total cm’s lost, I am pretty happy with the results and the wagon is still rumbling along with me securely aboard.

PS: I’m at pre-baby weight, woop woop.

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Want a 15 day FREE Membership, leave me a comment. Offer ends 30 April 2014.

Monthly Challenge – Squats

The Fit Fab Forty Monthly Challenge group tackled Push-ups for March. This was the aim of the game courtesy of www.heandsheeatclean.com

Challenge courtesy of www.heandsheeatclean.com

Challenge courtesy of www.heandsheeatclean.com

I find push-ups hard especially on my toes but the only way to get better is to practice. At the beginning of this challenge I could barely do 10 on my toes and my depth of push-up was very very poor, more like a pulse than a push-up.

I have attempted to stick to the Challenge as best I could, I was a bit intimidated to do Decline push-ups at the gym so occasionally I would do another set of Toe Push-ups instead. I missed a day here and there, but I think something is better than nothing, life does get in the way, sometimes I would double up another day but other times I would just accept that it didn’t get done and move on. I can now consistently do 3x 10 toe push-ups still not as deep as I would like but I am definitely getting better with the last 2 days to go I can’t wait to see how many I can do when I push myself to fatigue on the last day.

I have also continued with my planking from the February Challenge and so at the end of every workout I would try to do 3x 1 minute planks which is about 4 times a week.

The April Challenge starts tomorrow and this month is Squats, I found this 1 on Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans a great blog so go on over and have a read of some of their other posts.

Don't be April fooled by this saying May it is definitely our April Challenge.

Don’t be April fooled by this saying May it is definitely our April Challenge.

If you would like to join the group for daily inspiration comment on Facebook and I will add you to the group.

Eating Disorder – I’m not Fat

Eating disorders can come in many forms, anorexia, bulemia, binge eating and many many more. I look back at my history and believe I have a form of eating disorder, I thought it could have been a Reverse Anorexia but that is a known muscle dysmorphia, definitely not what I have.

My (unnamed) problem over the years was more about looking in the mirror and turning on an angle and sucking myself in putting on nice clothes, applying make-up and saying to myself “you are not fat, you look good”.

There is nothing wrong with being happy with how you look but I should have looked a bit closer. I like many other women enjoyed shopping and but I would struggle with finding clothes that fit and looked nice, but I would eventually find them and feel good wearing them. And each time I bought the next size up I would blame the factories for inconsistent sizing. I often got compliments like “you dress really nice for a big girl”. I was also a keen shopper for “gut sucking” granny nickers, shorts and camisole’s and I wore them all the time (and still do).

Reality would hit when I saw a photo of myself from an unflattering angle and then I would almost blame the person who took the photo.

It seems a lot of other people were blamed for my issues.

Don’t get me wrong I knew I was Plus Size and I knew the weight was creeping on (read about it here), I was obviously enjoying life too much and wasn’t ready for change. It wasn’t until I was due to get married that I thought I didn’t want to be a fat bride and embarked on my own NFB (No Fat Bride) campaign with my personal trainer. Whilst I lost a little bit of weight, I could have lost more before the big day and it is a regret I will have to live with.

In recent years the weight loss programs that have sparked my interest are those that promote “Lifestyle Changes” and my motto has been to make better choices every day.

When the next 36 day challenge came up at my gym EnVie Fitness Woonona, I jumped at the chance to get involved. I am in the best headspace that I can remember so I am on a mission. I have learned a lot this week about weight-loss using food and exercise to my advantage so it is time to put that knowledge into practice. The official start date is Monday 10th March but I am not waiting lifestyle changes begin now.

2014_36day_FBWall10March

If anyone is doing The 36 Day Challenge at EnVie Fitness Woonona if you post anything about the challenge on Facebook or Instagram use the hashtag #enviewoonona36daychallenge if you are making any other lifestyle changes use #everydaybetterchoices or use both. I look forward to reading up on how everyone else is going.

It’s not too late to sign up and join in.

The week that was – Zero to Hero

The 2 weeks prior to the start of this week were a blur of painting and decorating, morning/all day sickness, work and everyday life and then to top it all off a head cold. So after being down and out for a few weeks once the head cold began to subside (as did my all day sickness) it was time to get back into some exercise, towards the end of those 2 horrid weeks I managed 1 weights session.

So starting fresh this week here’s the low down:

Monday – I went to my PT session with focus on the Indoor Rower because there was a little Charity Rowing event coming up this weekend.

Tuesday – Got to my outdoor class with EnVie and even tho the ground was really soggy we did a good workout, running and toning exercise and I could feel the glute’s the next day.

Wed – no workout.

Thurs – I invited some friends whom I met at Mothers Group over for some training on the Indoor Rower. My trainer Ian from Pioneer Fitness came over to give the girls some tips and we practiced technique and transition for an Indoor Rowing relay. Some ladies had never been on a rower, others very rarely and some not for many years so it was a fun day of learning for all.

The younger generation learning the ways of Indoor Rowing.

The younger generation learning the ways of Indoor Rowing.

Friday – no workout

Saturday – I was helping to set-up the small rowing event and spent a few hours lifting and shifting rowing machines.

Being a sponsor the work ute gets put to good use with a load of rowing machines.

Being a sponsor the work ute gets put to good use with a load of rowing machines.

Sunday – The day of the Indoor Rowing event. The event was being held at a local Public School in conjunction with a fitness expo as a fundraiser for the school. They had workout demo’s with a Bosu class, kids gymnastics, martial arts and Yoga for kids and people exhibiting healthy ideas, a great expo for the school.

The Indoor Rowing Event had 80 competitors testing their stamina in the 500m Fly and Die, 4 minute and 2000m events as well as the highly contested men’s and women’s relays. The competitors ranged from teenagers to 80 year olds and even included Olympic Rower Hannah Every-Hall. The local WIN TV camera crew was there and filmed a stack of angles including my wardrobe malfunction. For some reason when I row hard and fast my shirt rides up at the front and by the end of the race my belly is poking out, this happened just as the camera man panned on to me, awesome.

with Olympic Rower Hannah Every-Hall

with Olympic Rower Hannah Every-Hall

I managed to round up 8 ladies for 2 teams in the Women’s Relays “Mummalicious” and “Bulli Shores” (thinking of team names is tricky so I took my inspiration from the TV shows of Jersey origins).

Some ideas for hairstyles and overdone tanning or bronzing for the next rowing meet with Mummalicious and Bulli Shores.

Some ideas for hairstyles and overdone tanning or bronzing for the next rowing meet with Mummalicious and Bulli Shores.

The relay is contested over 2000m with each team member rowing 500m then transitioning whilst the clock is ticking. The race can be won or lost in the transition. I even convinced them to have a go at the Individual 500m event and use it as a warm-up. They all did very well, I came 3rd in my heat (official results to come) and I held back a little bit due to my pregnancy.

So after a good break and recovering from the Individual 500m it was time for the relay. Ian from Pioneer was very excited about the relays, making all the teams line up on the side and march us all out onto the rowing deck like something from an Olympic swimming telecast, talk about building up the hype. There were 8 teams in the Ladies event, a long 8 minutes later my team “Bulli Shores” were victorious, a really exciting race with seconds between 1st and 2nd placings, the “Mummalicious” girls also did fantastic with several of them juggling breast feeding and getting babies to sleep in between races, to my pregnant self these girls are an inspiration.

The ladies relay Champions "Bulli Shores" featuring L to R; Kim Walker, myself, Kim Arnold and Amanda McDowall

The ladies relay Champions “Bulli Shores” featuring L to R; Kim Walker, myself, Kim Arnold and Amanda McDowall

I have a feeling there will be a few of them in training for the National Indoor Rowing Championships in Sept in both individual and Relay events.

I need to give a special mention to Ian Gibson from Pioneer Fitness for once again giving up his time and effort for my friends and others with his ability to entice more people to his passion of Indoor Rowing, he does so much for the sport, local charities and fundraising and I know with him at the helm the National event will be a success.

Indoor Rowing Guru, Ian Gibson from Pioneer Fitness, does so much for the sport of Indoor Rowing.

Indoor Rowing Guru, Ian Gibson from Pioneer Fitness, does so much for the sport of Indoor Rowing.