30 Day Shred - Level 1 - Day 1

I've been over indulging over the last couple of weeks - winter treats like melt-in-your-mouth Brie on crackers and toasted baguette, creme caramel and lots and lots of red wine.

Sigh. It kind of hit me when I tentatively weighed myself on the scales and it was almost back at 57 kilos again. I was so close!! Just a few weeks ago I was down to my lowest I had been since I got married (54.9kgs) and the end goal was in sight. I was feeling better in my clothes, felt a lot more confident and was...happy.

Now, the thought that I had made it that far made me lose my focus and my concentration and I let it slide. Winter blues, damn you. Add to that a dusty gym membership (that I finally cancelled!) and no motivation at all to move from the warmth of my home-made Snuggee on the couch, I was done.

But now, despite my time-of-the-month bloatiness and painful lower back symptoms, I am attempting to get back into shape.

Evs has been killing it on the fitness front. To the point where he has lost so much weight that my parents are genuinely concerned with his health (didn't they know that by marrying their daughter he was signing up for a lifetime of love-induced pining???). His motivation has been to attempt the half-marathon this October. Plus, I just realised that signing up for the 10km run for the Melbourne Marathon (which happens to be a day after Evs' birthday and was done purely as a misguided attempt to support him) means I actually have to go through with running 10 k's and hopefully finishing.

But he has hot abs now...not that he didn't have a hot body before, but dude, this guy is TONED :P *Droooool*

So....Jillian Michael's '30 Day Shred' is something I came across just recently and instantly piqued my interest. A workout DVD that will help you melt away the inches in only 20 minutes a day?? I was sold.

Went kind of going into it with a huge mountainful of salt, because I wasn't so convinced that 20 minutes would be enough to move that stubborn love handles that have so lovingly made my hips, thighs and ass their home, even it WAS Jillian Michaels. But the scary looking picture of her ripped and toned on the DVD cover made me determined to try it.

The 30 Day shred works like this - 10 days at 3 different Levels of workouts to make 30 days. You lose inches, you feel great and...you probably want to kill Jillian by the end of it.

So Day 1, Level 1 now complete.

I surprisingly built up a sweat, my arms felt like they were getting a good workout (yay to cans of chickpeas for weights!) and my legs felt like jelly after doing those torturous lunges with bicep curls. I have atrocious balance and even when I was Body Pumping on a regular basis, the lunges would always get to me. My calves are quite sore and my abs feel like they have been stretched.

It's an interesting concept, for each level is further broken down into 3 circuits with a few minutes each of strength, cardio and ab-work. I quite like it because it's short but intense, and for someone like me who has a notoriously short attention span - it kept me focused and interested.

The only thing will be I have to do this same Level 1 workout for the next 9 days, so THAT may get a bit boring but as long as I am working out, I think I can handle it for 20 minutes.

I am also simultaneously cutting back on my diet - reducing the carbs, reducing the portions and cutting down on the wine (*sob*).

Ok - so it's been a while since I posted here - my weight loss obsession fluctuated from extreme (crying in my walk-in closet for hours) to nonchalant (Daaaym - I still don't look- half-bad so why obsess?) along with many of my blog readers insisting that I wasn't fat. They are right - I don't LOOK fat - I just FEEL fat. And without the clothes - it's a different story. Cellulite and wobbly bits everywhere.

The only thing I like about my body is my breasts. I used to like my waist but that is slowly disappearing.

Anyways - since starting full-time work my eating habits are slightly better - the only thing is I haven't had the chance to exercise much. And while at training - they provide lunch and it's always these little sandwiches and fruit which are so yummy but thank-god healthy so I've been doing ok.

But I did decide to do something drastic.

The Lemon Detox Diet.

It's the one that Beyonce swears by having lost 10 kg's in 2 weeks for her role in Dreamgirls and it's the one that Tania Zaetta promotes and now it's the one I am going to try.

I have never been on a diet before and this is going to take effort.

You basically make up this drink which is a combination of water, tree syrup, lemons and cayenne pepper and drink that instead of eating. I am aware enough to know that it is a sort of starvation diet but it isn't bothering me much. Every Tuesday last year I used to fast along with my Dad - eating only fruits and nuts and having only dinner. THAT was torture for me when I first started and I used to CRAVE carbs and sometime sneakily eat some bread or something. But other days I did it on eating that or less. So I have some faith in myself for completing this. It is meant to last about 7 days and it is somewhat of a test on myself as well if I can refrain from not only eating but eating crap.

This first day has been ok - I woke up late (about 10am) because I was exhausted from the 5:30am starts all week and got busy in housework until I realised I hadn't eaten yet. So I made up a day's worth of the drink and decided to have some.

And it's not bad. I love lemons so that iss fine, and the syrup sweetens it. The cayenne pepper gives it a extra zing, a bit of spice and it's not too bad. I have had cravings for food but every time I do, I drink water or have another glass of the Lemon drink. Evs and I also went to play tennis, but due to the bloody heat we stayed only for an hour. But that was good - I got some exercise in as well.

They say that it's the first couple of days that are the worst and I'm bracing myself for tomorrow where I might experience headaches and dizziness. But so far I have been doing ok and if I lose the average 4 kilos that they say you can lose within a week - then it'll be so worth it.

I know I am crazy, but I am going to see if this works. If not - then I will bow down to all the 'I told you so's' that I know I will deserve.

Wish me luck :)

So today's meal plan - I couldn't find homemade chicken curry on the site so I just used the closest one - I think what I ate had less calories in it.

Went for a walk today as well - didn't have time for tennis and so hopefully we will go tomorrow. But I think I did a lot of exercise today anyways. That's more than enough for a lazy person like me. I'm exhausted. AND I deserved that ice-cream :P

Meal plan for today - I just made it under the 1200 calories limit even with doing basically no exercise and eating more than I should have chocolate.

Woohoo!!

Is this how its supposed to work????

Being doing ok today....I had a bit of a relapse when little bro came home and insisted on making Rum Balls. I promptly ate 3 of them :( Maybe it's my mood - it's a bit off and my eating is reflecting that a bit.

Here is my eating plan for today using the Calorie King tools - I'm loving it and it's easier to put up a pic instead of updating so much.

Drinking lots of water today which is good and I found out that 45 minute workout of Tae Bo burns off 409 calories!! So that coupled with walking the dogs when I gt back home and maybe some time on the exercise bike - I have my exercise quota down pat. This also doesn't include all the walking that you do in the day - that's still counted!! :P

I'm making dinner tonight and so have ~ 370 calories to play with. I'm hoping my meal comes under that - Thai Chicken Noodles is on the menu :) Yummmmm :)

EDIT: I went over.....goddamn those rum balls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Calorie king!

Browsing the net as I do and came across this site which looks to be fantastically helpful. Especially targeted at Australia so I can work out the amount of calories in each thing that I eat, and try and stick to an amount that will help me lose weight.

I've made my own profile and they recommend:

1200 calories a day
30 min exercise

to achieve my target weight of 50kg.

That's doable and you can enter in the foods you eat and they calculate exactly how many calories there are in each serving, and what % comes from carbs etc so you can reduce them as needed.

Although they haven't specified how LONG exactly it will take to achieve this goal, but I'm hoping if I can at least stick to these guidelines, I will see something happening.