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.

Thai beef salad

Yep, after deciding that my abs were probably going to be shot for good, they made a comeback yesterday.  Ab test results at start of the program was zero, couldn’t even get my fingers up over my knees.  Every couple of days since, I give it a go and see if I can do it yet.  Yesterday for some reason I was doing hamstring curls with my feet up on the lounge instead of using the coffee table.  At the end of a set I put my feet on the floor and they tucked in under the lounge.  The thought crossed my mind as to whether I could do a sit up with my feet being held down by the lounge – cheating I know, but if I could, then it would give me some hope.

Well, what do you know – I did it.  Easily!  So I tried all the levels and could do them all with my feet being tucked under the lounge.  Next step was to try without the lounge, but I had the momentum now and nothing was going to stop me!  Step 1 – too easy.  Step 2 – a little harder, but no real problems.  Step 3 – sooooo close, my feet just lifted off the ground a tiny bit.

I was so excited I became a little distracted and forgot most of the rest of my workout for the morning.  I kept stopping mid-exercise (luckily I was already into the second circuit, so it wasn’t a total waste) and trying the sit ups again, just to be sure I wasn’t making it up and I could do it.

I even had to show my husband when he got home!  It deserved a celebration, so I let myself have a beer – I had the calories (and more) still available.  Unfortunately, we had a rotten evening with the bub, so any beer enjoyment was lost and we ended up with two grumpy parents instead.  Oh well, it was still a win, my abs work again!

Chicken, pumpkin and chickpea curry

Yep, I ended up having 3 days in a row of no exercise.  It was just too busy with appointments and the bub and I was getting stressed about how I was going to find time to fit it all in.  So I told myself it was ok to just let it go for a couple of days, as long as a couple of days didn’t end up stretching out to the entire week!  I stuck to the food plan and started up the exercise again today.  Since there are only 3 exercise days left this week, I decided to make today a cardio day, then back on the program tomorrow with core and the Super Session on Saturday is toning, so at least I still get a bit of everything this week.

I have to say, I am really enjoying the cardio.  I thought I would prefer the toning days as in the past I have really liked those type of exercises and found cardio exercise really boring.  Generally unless I am actually doing something – bushwalk, playing a game, etc, I don’t see the point to cardio.  Especially gym machines – treadmill, cross-trainer, bike – sooooo boring.  Rowing machine I didn’t mind so much.  But a few months before I found out I was pregnant (about this time last year) I had started jogging on a treadmill at home.  I was starting to really enjoy it as I could see improvements every single time I used it!  I was either going further in the same time, jogging faster, jogging for longer stretches, until after a few months I was able to jog for nearly 30 minutes straight!  Then I got pregnant, exhausted, body temperature rose and heart rate shot sky-high as soon as I attempted any exercise and it all stopped – until now.  I’m back on the treadmill again for the cardio days and stepping up the pace and the intervals a bit faster than the program dictates.  And I’m feeling great!

What do you enjoy most - do you like the cardio? toning? or the core workout?

I love her to bits, but gees she makes things busy some times for such a little person!  No photo today – they’re still on the camera…