It still looks a bit of a shambles, but we got SO much sorted out.  The bookcases are cleared of any books that will be going.  One of the tall bookcases has disappeared upstairs and the purple bookcase you can now see is in place.  It’s pretty empty so far, just a few old Enid Blyton books and some others from my childhood.  The remaining tall bookcase is practically empty – baby books are down the bottom and a few photos and ornaments up the top (plus a couple more bits and pieces that still need to disappear upstairs.  A bit more bookcase swapping went on and the books of ours that we are hanging on to are now either in a small bookcase behind the desk you can just see in the right corner of the photo or in a narrow bookcase now sitting in our upstairs hallway.

Still a bit to be done, but we can start to see a bit better how it will look when we get it all finished.  Now it just needs to me sort out a few boxes (hiding behind the recliner – shhh!) so we can move on to the next steps!

Waiting for bath time ~ Emily, 11 months

My final challenge/reward took place the first weekend of March.  We had signed up for an urban rogaine – basically orienteering around the suburbs finding waypoints.  It was all through the hills of Mosman, an area we know quite well, and we arrived on the day and plotted our course with alternatives depending on how I coped with it all.  I was more than a little disappointed in my performance, in the 3 hours I only managed to do 16km.  From the start I was puffing and struggling and my heart rate was fairly high for the effort I was putting in.  This was the first inkling I had that something more might be going on here!  It was still satisfying to have done this and get back within the three hour time limit, and I was definitely sore for a couple of days, but I had to wait a few more days to check out my hunch about what was going on.  Sure enough, by the end of the week the pregnancy test came back positive!  Amazing!  I truly believe that a huge part of this is due to my being healthier and fitter due to the 12wbt – there are a few things I had going against me, not least of which is my age at 39.

So where to from here?  I cut back on my exercise straight away as my body was obviously finding it a bit too much of a challenge to keep going with.  I increased how much I was eating, but still continued to slowly lose weight over the next couple of months.  Luckily now, at 5 months pregnant, I am back to what I was at the end of the 12wbt in February and have even started gaining a little more – my belly is certainly showing I am pregnant anyway!  Other than being more tired than normal, this pregnancy has been pretty much as straight forward an unproblematic as the last which has been wonderful.  Running around after an under one year old at the same time would have been a LOT harder if I had more to deal with on the health front as well!

I’ve continued walking most days and this has been a big help physically and mentally to get some “time out”.  We try and make it a bit of a family time and my husband joins me when he can and Emily gets pushed along in the pram.

Getting around ~ Emily, 9 months

So where does this blog go now?  I seem to be hitting a bit of a nesting / home improvement patch   So along with sharing my photos, I will be following my plans to “kid-friendly” our home, fix up the garden a bit and seeing what chaos having a second child can bring to our family!  I hope you join me for the adventure.

• 1km time trial – 5:32 (down from 8:01)
• push ups – 28 (up from 21) in a minute
• ab test – level 2 (up from 0)
• stretch – 13cm (up from 6cm)
• wall site – 2:36 (up from 1:08)

The only real changes from 4 weeks ago is the time trial and the wall sit.  And can I just say I’m pretty damn proud of myself for the time trial.  At the start, I think I managed 300 metres jogging before I slumped back to a walk and I was absolutely shattered at the end of it.  I didn’t have the best prep for it either, I had barely any lunch, no afternoon snack, not enough water during the day and I have always done my exercise in the morning, not the evening.  So to kick another 30 seconds off my time is so cool!  I think the improvement has come from the damn hill intervals I’ve been doing over the past 2-3 weeks.  Cranking the treadmill up to 10 incline has really pushed my quads and given them the extra strength needed to push harder and faster.

Oh, and yes, I DID lose a decent amount of weight.  Over 10% body weight in fact – I’ve gone from 82.2kg, down past my pre-pregnancy weight and this final week I dropped below my previous “holy crap I need to lose weight” weight.  I’m getting close to my previous stable weight, but if I keep exercising and watching what I eat, I’m aiming to get back to my old “kinda fit” weight.  I’m not aiming for my old “fit” weight – too time consuming but my next target is to get below 70kg.  I’m thinking this is entirely do-able, possibly within the next 4-6 weeks since I managed nearly a kilo this week.

So onwards and downwards… Not sure what’s going to happen with this blog, I still have a few more posts to make for this round and then we will see what happens.  It won’t stop, but it may change focus a litttle!

Japanese style prawn noodles

Well, not much to write about at this point.  Less than 2 of the 12 weeks in the program left to go and it seems a bit strange that it’s nearly all over.  I know once I finish I need to keep eating right and keep exercising – and luckily my husband is 100% behind me in this.  In a lot of ways it will be a relief to have some of the time back, but I also know that I still need to find time for most of the activities I have been doing anyway.

My struggle at the moment is to stay focussed.  I stuck to my plan to do some exercise each day over the long weekend which was good, but I slacked off in the eating department a little.  Not a huge amount, but I had a couple of glasses of wine that I wouldn’t usually have and probably snacked a bit on the wrong things.  Nothing major, but it lets me know that I am really going to have to watch things once I’m off the plan to make sure I don’t get back into old habits.  The hardest part is that my husband needs to eat more than what we have been at times, so he will have dessert or extra yummy things in dinner and I have to talk myself out of having them too.  It really doesn’t seem fair sometimes.  But then he doesn’t need to lose as much weight as I do!

I just need to keep reminding myself that I’m getting really close to my original goal weight and once I get there I can ease up a little on the strict calorie control to maintain rather than lose weight.  It’s not really taking that long to lose it – if I look at the past 10 weeks, I’ve lost well over half a kilo a week, almost a full kilo a week if I take out the 2 weeks over christmas when I didn’t stick to the plan, and I’m still losing the weight well.  I haven’t really had a slow down in weight loss, it fluctuates from week to week, but overall I’m still losing a decent amount each week – I haven’t hit the “I’m restricting calories, exercising, but my weight doesn’t change” plateau yet.

I also need to remind myself why I’m doing this – to feel better about myself, fitter and healthier, to be able to keep up with my daughter and play with her as she grows, to be a happier, healthier wife to my husband and to give myself a focus and a plan for getting there.

Steak sandwich

Slow week for me.  I’ve been absolutely exhausted all week, mainly from not sleeping too well and from the baby not sleeping as well either.  As a result, I’ve been hungrier than usual and the 1200 calories just isn’t cutting it.  I’ve had a few “extras” to eat while still being mainly good about the choices I make so still managed to drop some weight but I haven’t had the energy (or time) to do any exercise.

Actually, today is probably the first day that I’ve felt up to it all week and I still didn’t do any exercise.  But you know what – I’m ok with that.  For now.  I spent the morning doing other useful stuff that I hadn’t been able to get on to in the rest of the week, so I already feel like I’ve accomplished something today.  Exercise picks up again tomorrow and with it being a long weekend I think I’m going to exercise every day to make up for being slack the rest of the week.

With only 2 weeks left on the program, I’m starting to feel a bit burnt out.  It’s been a lot more time consuming than I expected which has affected all of us.  While the exercise is only for an hour, it takes up most of the morning once you add in cool down and a shower – which usually doesn’t get to happen until the baby has been up for a couple of hours and goes back down to sleep again.  Then the food prep has taken a lot more time than I’ve expected some days as well.  I’m trying hard to stay focussed but it’s getting more and more difficult as we get closer to the end.

It’s not like I’m going to just stop everything once the program finishes either.  We plan on going through the recipes, pulling out some favourites and putting them on regular rotation for dinners.  My lunches have definitely changed too and I’m happy eating a mountain bread wrap or corn thins with some yummy toppings.  I’ll also keep doing regular exercise - I’m enjoying feeling fitter again and that as I’m losing the weight I’m also getting more toned.

So really, I’m not stopping, I made a commitment to see this through, I’m just feeling a bit run down and am looking forward to this weekend and getting things back in order again and seeing what I can achieve in these final two weeks!

Taco corn thins

175 assorted squats

137 assorted push ups

95 step ups (each leg)

90 tricep dips

120 assorted ab reps

Finish off with a few stretches and that is the Saturday Session done.  I actually completed all reps (some modified) in the program, and check it out – all those push ups too!

Chicken with salad

Another bugbear of mine…  I hate hills.  Yep, I’ll walk as far and for as long as you want me to – on the flat.  I’ll charge madly down a hill faster than I should.  But put me in front of a hill to walk UP and I’ll grumble and groan and carry on like it’s the end of the world.

So todays cardio session with “hill sprints” in it had me groaning in anticipation of what was to come.  Admittedly, I have to do all my training while at home during baby naps – especially anything on the treadmill.  Cardio days seem to put me on there for about 40 minutes straight, so I have to be sure she’s down and hope she stays down long enough for me to get through everything.  Today I was in luck…

20 minutes jogging at 8km/hr – no worries.  Yes, of course I worked up a sweat – it was 90% humidity outside and I had the windows open.  Then interval sprints.  This is tricky on a treadmill that only goes up to 10km/hr!  So I just reduced the rest period between “sprints” and got through it ok.  Then came the hard part, the hill interval sprints… I have NO idea what a “steep” incline is on a treadmill.  So I just cranked it up to 10 (percent? degrees?), kept the speed at 10km/hr and went for it.  Can I just say OUCH!  The first couple were ok, but after that the quads and butt really started burning.  Felt damn good to get it done though!

I think this is going to be a really tough one for me, but definitely satisfying to get through it.  Actually, thinking back on it, I don’t think I did enough intervals… hmmm, something to remember next time!

And how are the push ups going?  Well, I haven’t actually made it to 50 in a day yet.  But I am doing several sets of 10 each day and they ARE getting easier.  Tomorrow for sure!

Steak with creamy mushroom sauce

I don’t know what it is, but push ups just don’t like me… There are SO many push ups needing to be done on each of the toning days and I have yet to complete them all.  I added it up one day last week and there were 180 push ups in some form or another needing to be done!  I think I got to 75.

I’m really not sure when I lost my arm strength, push ups used to be something I could comfortably just “do” - although possibly not as many as I’m trying to do now.  But, they certainly were not a problem exercise.  And I’m getting tired of not being able to do them.  Every other exercise I can push myself through one way or another.  My legs are getting stronger with the ridiculous number of squats and lunges being done as well as the jogging.  My abs are improving rapidly as well, much more than I had hoped for less than 6 months post-baby.  My flexibility is getting better, I have less back pain, yet feel like I’m getting nowhere with push ups.

So here’s my plan – to try to get these damn push ups under control, I am going to do 50 push ups every day.  Yep, 50!  I’m splitting them up into five sets of 10 to be done any time throughout the day that it think of it.  When I can do ten comfortably, then I’ll increase the sets to 15 (with an “extra” set of five) and so on until I can do the 50 in one go.  So far today – two sets of 10 complete and another about to be done as soon as I finish writing this up.

Surely this will have to help and get my arms back to where they can do what I ask of them!

Smoked salmon open sandwich

Wow – two thirds of the way through already!  Christmas did put a bit of a spanner in the works and I missed out on a bit of what was going on, but I think I’m all back under control again now (kinda).  Enough, anyway!

Had a bit of a busy weekend, so didn’t quite get around to doing everything I wanted to, however enough got done that I don’t feel like the weekend was wasted.  Today was time to run through the fitness test again and while there wasn’t much improvement, the fact that there was any at all while I hadn’t been doing the exercise was very satisfying.

I comfortably kept up a good jog for the entire kilometre and picked up my pace nicely in the last 200 metres to finish one second short of the six minute mark – dammit!  Well, there’s my target for 12 weeks set out nice and easily.  I honestly think I could have pushed a little harder, but I was still pretty knackered by the end – but very satisfied with my slight improvement.

In other tests, I improved my wall sit marginally, did a bit worse in flexibility and maintained the same result for my abs.  The big surprise was the push ups – I have so much trouble getting through the number scheduled in a session and usually only manage less than half, so was amazed (and pleased) to see a decent improvement here.  I went from doing 21/22 in a minute at the start and 4 weeks in, to doing 28 today.  I have a cunning plan in place starting tomorrow though to really get this one improving though!  OH, and just in case you were thinking this was pretty good, they ARE on my knees…  And my husband put me to shame by doing 36 in a minute (on toes).

So really, pretty pleased with my results given my lack of exercise over the past 4 weeks.

Seafood marinara and couscous

I’m back!  Must be around 4 weeks since I’ve made a post, terribly slack of me.  I was away for a couple of weeks over Christmas and was almost totally off the program for that time.  No excuse, just terribly slack of me.  I did hardly any exercise at all and didn’t follow the meal plan.  I DID watch what I ate though and avoided snacking just because it was there, made sure I didn’t drink too much and only had a little chocolate – much less than I usually would!

As a result, for the 2 weeks I was away from my scales, I still managed to drop half a kilo which I was really pleased to see.  I was organised to kick back into things again, but seeing this loss really gave me the boost I needed to start up again.  Meal plan started up again this week and damn there are some tasty things on it – japanese style prawns with soba noodles to start the week was amazing!  Didn’t get a photo of it though so will need to make it again.

With exercise, I started up again last weekend with 1hr picked form a Super Saturday Session and was sore for 3 days after!  Oops, I shouldn’t have gone that long doing nothing!  I had been finding it difficult with various demands on my time to work on anything else I needed to do after using up most of the morning to fit in exercise, cool down and a shower while my bub is sleeping.  So I’m shuffling things around a bit.  I’ll now only be doing 4 (possibly 5) days of exercise a week.  Two of these will be on weekdays and two on the weekend.

With this all in place I was very excited to see over a kilo drop off the scales this week!  Slowly but surely getting towards my goal weight and very comfortably under my pre-pregnancy weight which is fantastic.